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Louisiana. Third District Court (Orleans Parish).
Acquisition: Deposited by Civil District Court, 1974
The Louisiana Constitution of 1845 allowed the legislature to establish "as many district courts as the public interest may require" (Title IV, Article 75). These district courts were to have original jurisdiction in all civil cases, when the amount in dispute exceeded $50, exclusive of interest. Act 43 of 1846 further detailed the organization of the district courts in the parish and city of New Orleans. The Act provided for five District Courts: the First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth District Courts of New Orleans. The Third District court was to keep two dockets, a "Preference Docket" and an "Ordinary Docket." On the Preference Docket were to be placed "all cases of appeal from Justices of the Peace" and these cases were to be tried "by preference over all cases found on the Ordinary or other dockets." The Judge of the court decided "summarily and without argument" which docket a case was to be assigned. The Act stipulated that all appeal cases "shall be de novo, and shall be conducted according to the rules and regulations provided by law for the trial of appeals from the judgments of the Associate Judges of the City Courts of New Orleans." Any party introducing new evidence into the appeal was to pay the costs of the appeal. Cases pending before the Judge of the City Court and those pending before the Parish Court (both defunct by 1846) were also to be transferred to Third District Court. Act 229 of 1853 further organized the Orleans Parish courts, giving exclusive jurisdiction over certain types of cases to the courts (criminal matters to First District Court, probate matters to Second District Court, for example) and added a new court, the Sixth District Court, to have jurisdiction over cases pending in the City of Lafayette, newly incorporated into Orleans Parish from Jefferson Parish. The remaining courts (Third, Fourth, and Fifth District Courts) were to have "concurrent jurisdiction of all civil cases whatever" that did not fall under the jurisdiction of the special courts. Prior to this 1853 Act, the Third District Court (along with the other numbered district courts) also handled matters that were not purely commercial in nature, including successions. An index to the successions before the Third District Court (and other courts) can be found online here: archives.nolalibrary.org/inv/succes1.htm. Most of these records are available on microfilm. The Consitution of 1868 retained and reinstituted the six numbered district courts in Orleans Parish and added a seventh court. It reiterated the exclusive jurisdiction of several of the courts (First District Court, exclusive criminal jurisdiction; Second District Court, exclusive probate jurisdiction; Third District Court, exclusive jurisdiction of appeals from justices of the peace). Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh District Courts were given exclusive jurisdiction in all civil cases, except probate, when the sum in contest was above one hundred dollars, exclusive of interest. In most courts, the docket numbering begins again at this time, with a second series of records. Act 7 of 1868 ordered that all cases pending in the Third District Court, exclusive of appeals from the justices of the peace, be transfered to the newly created Seventh District Court (which ceased operation in 1872, replaced by the Superior District Court.) The consititution of 1879 consolidated all of the remaining civil ourts into a single court, Civil District Court, still in existence today. Cases pending in Third District Court were transferred to this new court under new docket numbers.
The records are arranged in series as follows, all of which are records of the regular business of the court: NOTE: Successions filed with the Third District Court (as well as in the First, Fourth, and Fifth District Courts), 1846-1853, are indexed separately HERE. The successions are filed with the suit records in this court.
Suit Records
VSC290 Suit Records, 1846-1880 Manuscript records of the proceedings in the civil suits filed before the Third District Court. Individual suit records range in size from one or two sheets in the simpler matters to hundreds of documents in the more complicated litigations. Records may include some or all of the following items: petitions, answers, oaths, bonds, transcripts of testimony, and orders & judgments of the court [in some cases the orders and judgments appear as separate documents, more common though was the practice of recording such judicial actions on the reverse of the original petition(s)]. Various articles of evidence may also be filed in individual suit records, including such items as newspaper clippings, plans, copies of original documents filed elsewhere, letters, and accounts/extracts from accounts from various financial records.
The Third District Court suits are arranged in two series (the docket numbering starts over from #1 in the second series): Access to these records is through the general docket books and the indexes thereto. (See below) The "genealogically significant" suit records of the court (generally, those showing evidence of a family line) were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah. Microfilm is available in the Louisiana Division/City Archives; it can also be ordered from any Mormon Family History Center. Unmicrofilmed records are available for in-house use only in the Louisiana Division/City Archives.
VSC300 1846-1880
Minute Books, 1846-1880 Bound manuscript volumes in which the daily minutes of the court's proceedings were entered by the clerk. These volumes were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah.
v. 1 missing
Manuscript volumes divided into subseries as follows: general dockets (and indexes) and "special" dockets. The general dockets are arranged in numerical order by docket number. Each page is divided into rectangular sections so that one docket entry appears in each section. At the head of each entry is the docket number, names of the plaintiff(s) and defendant(s) in the duit, date of initial filing, the name(s) of the attorney(s) representing the parties to the suit, and in some instances a brief note as to the type of suit. Beneath the heading is a dated list of the actions taken in the suit (e.g., petitions, answers, orders, documents filed, copies made, record withdrawn, judgments, etc.), along with the court costs incurred for each action. NOTE: The extant general docket books and the plaintiffs' and defendants' indices for the Third District Court have been digitized and are available FamilySearch.org. You must create an account with FamilySearch in order to view the images, but the account is free. LINK HERE to access the images. (Click on "Browse through xxx images" and then choose the "Third District Court" link.) The plaintiffs' and defendants' indexes were also microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah and are available for in-house use; the microfilm can also be ordered from any Mormon Family History Center. The special dockets include the following:
Execution Docket, 1855 - 1877 (VSC352) 3 v. (volumes 1 and 2 are fragmentary) These fragmentary special dockets have limited research value and were created for the convenience of the court. Any matters before the court should be recorded in the general docket.
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General Docket, 1846-1880
Series 1
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Defendant Index to the General Docket, 1846-1880
Series 1
VSC350ip
Plaintiff Index to the General Docket, 1846-1880
Series 1
Bound manuscript volumes containing, for certain suits before the court, copies of various salient documents filed in the suit, including the plaintiff's petition, defendant's answer(s), affidavits, orders, jury verdict (in jury cases), the court's judgment, and the decree of the Supreme Court (if the case went up on appeal) for each suit decided, in the order in which the case became final. Thus, the judicial record books show the essentials of suit filed and decided in the Third District Court. These books are particularly useful if the original suit record is no longer extant.
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Judicial Record Books, 1846-1869
v. 1 7/2/1846 - 7/9/1847
Manuscript volumes recording deeds for real property sold by the Sheriff under order of the judge of Third District Court. Each entry is headed by the nane of the purchaser of the property. The parties to the suit are given in the text. The remainder of each entry amounts to the Sheriff's proces verbal of the individual sale, including a legal description of the property, the name of the parties to the suit effecting the sale, the terms of the sale. A reference to the Conveyance Office Book and folio where the deed is formally recorded is also included. The deed books were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah and are available for in-house use. The microfilm can also be ordered from any Mormon Family History Center.
VSC690
Deed Books, 1846-1880
v. 1 7/1/1846 - 4/4/1850
Until 1853, the Third District Court (along with the other numbered district courts) also occasionally handled probate matters. The following volumes record 122 wills probated in Third District Court. Note: These records have not been microfilmed and are available for in-house use only. These wills are not recorded in the general will books kept by the Recorder of Wills.
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Will Books, 1846-1853
v. 1 9/7/1846 - 4/7/1853 (Indexed)
Like the special dockets above, these miscellaneous volumes were created for the convenience of the court and have little, if any, research value. There should be no information recorded in these volumes that can not be found in the suit record, the general docket, and/or the minute books.
VSC370t
Judgments Rendered in City Tax Suits, 1866-1870
v. 1 9/24/1864 - 2/21/1865 (#18020 - 19516)
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Judgments Rendered By Default in City Tax Suits, 1870 v. 1 11/11/1870
VSC370ts
Judgments Rendered in State Tax Suits, 1871 v. 1 3/9/1871 - 6/16/1871 (#12652 - 19336)
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Bond Book, 1847-1868 v. 1 3/3/1847 - 6/30/1868
VSC250
Oaths of Executors, Tutors, Appraisers, Etc., 1846-1868
v. 1 &bnsp; 7/6/1846 - 2/6/1852
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iw 6/15/2013 |
