Salt Lake County (Utah). Probate Court

Civil and criminal case files, 1852-1887.

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Schedule Description

In 1852, the Utah Territorial Legislature provided that the Probate Court should have jurisdiction not only in estate and guardianship matters, but original jurisdiction in civil, criminal, and chancery cases. The Probate Court could act as an appellant court to the Justice of the Peace Courts in the County, and decisions made in the Probate Court could be appealed to the District Court. This series includes those cases handled by the Probate Court which are not probate, estate, or guardianship cases. Civil cases include primarily divorce, debt, replevin, damages, delinquent tax collections, contract and property disputes, evictions, and other case types. Criminal cases include murder, larceny, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, and contempt

of court charges, as well as others. Other case types include appeals, habeas corpus hearings, and inquests into deaths. In 1874, the federal Poland Act revoked the jurisdiction of the Probate Court over all but divorce and probate act ended Probate Court action in divorce cases, and with it this series. This series also includes items that are not case files as such, but individual documents filed with the court. For example, a few affidavits of slave ownership or other matters may have been filed with the court and are represented in this series. Occasionally documents such as travers jury subpoenas were at some point separated from the case file, and where identification of those records could not be made, the document is filed separately. Documents related to quarterly grand jury proceedings

which could not be identified as belonging to a specific case are filed together. Individual pieces of correspondence which are not related to a case file before the court may also be included as a separate file.

Scope and Content

In 1852, the Utah Territorial Legislature provided that the Probate Court should have jurisdiction not only in estate and guardianship matters, but original jurisdiction in civil, criminal, and chancery cases. The Probate Court could act as an appellant court to the Justice of the Peace Courts in the County, and decisions made in the Probate Court could be appealed to the District Court. This series includes those cases handled by the Probate Court which are not probate or estate cases. Civil cases include primarily divorce, debt, replevin, damages, delinquent tax collections, contract and property disputes, evictions, and other case types. Criminal cases include murder, larceny, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, and contempt of court charges, as well as others. Other case types include appeals, habeas corpus hearings, and inquests into deaths. In 1874, the federal Poland Act revoked the jurisdiction

Notes

Case files are arranged chronologically based on the filing date of the initiating petition prior to 1872. Starting in 1872, case files are arranged numerically by case number, with case numbers being assigned roughly chronologically based on the filing date of the initiating petition. For civil case files filed prior to 1872, case dates are based on the clerk's or judge's filing date written on the complaint. If that is not available, the filing date of the initiating petition as recorded in the minutes is used. If neither of those dates are available, the date used is either the date the complaint was signed, or the date of the first surviving document filed with the court. For criminal cases filed prior to 1872, dates are based on when the indictment was presented to the court, if that date can be determined. If the date of the indictment is not apparent, or if no indictment was filed, the date of the initiating complaint is used or the date of the first surviving document filed

with the Probate Court.

Archival processing of this series was completed by Arlene Schmuland in May 2000. Documents were moved into appropriate case files, and an electronic index to the case files was created during this procedure. The documents had been microfilmed prior to processing, and with the amount of reorganization of records necessitated by processing, the filming was deaccessioned. The series was refilmed in July 2001 and the container list updated at that time. After filming the hard copy was transferred to the Salt Lake County Archives.

For cases prior to 1872, the numbers written in ink on the top right corner of most documents were case numbers assigned to the files sometime after creation and prior to processing. These case numbers are not supported by the minute books, minute book indexes, or by the case documents themselves which frequently include different case numbers on documents belonging to only one case file, or one case number on documents belonging to several different cases. These numbers should be ignored as they do not reflect the original order of the case files. For the most part, case files are not complete pictures of the case. Many motions and judgments that today would be represented by a separate document were only recorded in the minutes. In many instances, the disposition of the case was not kept as a distinct document and so cannot be found in these files. Some of the documents filed may not have survived, so the user is advised to consult series 3944, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASE DOCKET BOOKS

for additional information. Cases involving the same individuals in close time frames may have documents relevant to both cases in only one file, that usually being the first one.