Orleans Parish Superior District Court records
Collection
Identifier: CA-OP-SDC
Scope and Contents
The records are arranged in series as follows, all of which are records of the regular business of the court:
- Suit Records
- Minute Books
- General Docket and Defendants' Index to General Docket
- Special Dockets
- Judgments in City and State Tax Suits
Dates
- Creation: 1872-1877
Conditions Governing Access
These materials have not been microfilmed and are available to registered researchers by appointment. Please request suit records by docket number and additional materials by volume number.
Conditions Governing Use
Reproduction or use of materials is prohibited without the permission of the City Archives & Special Collections. Please review the Archives' Permission to Publish note.
Biographical / Historical
Act 2 (Extra Session) of December 11, 1872 created a new court, the Superior District Court, for the parish of Orleans. The new court had the following jurisdiction:
- exclusive jurisdiction in and for the parish of Orleans, to issue writs of injunctions, mandamuses, quo warranto, and to entertain all proceedings, and to try all cases or actions in which the right to any office, State, parish or municipal, is in any way involved.
- exclusive original jurisdiction in and for the parish of Orleans, over all cases or proceedings in which the State of Louisiana, the municipal corporation of the city of New Orleans, the Board of Metropolitan Police, the Board of School Directors for the city of New Orleans, or any corporation established by act of the General Assembly, and domiciled in the parish of Orleans, shall be a party, or be interested, where the amount in dispute shall exceed the sum of one hundred dollars.
- appellate jurisdiction from the justices of the peace in the parish of Orleans in all cases in which the State, the city of New Orleans, the Board of Metropolitan Police, the Board of School Directors, or any such corporation aforesaid shall be a party or be interested, and shall have power to issue writs of prohibition, injunction, mandamus and certiorari in aid of such appellate jurisdiction.
The act also provided for suits pending in other Orleans Parish courts, as well as some in other parishes, to be transferred to the Superior District Court, if such suits would subsequently fall under the new court's jurisdiction. Included were suits from the Seventh and Eighth District Courts, both of which were abolished by the act. The judge and clerk of Superior District Court were to be initially appointed by the Governor. On expiration of their terms in office, the positions would be filled by election. The judge was empowered to name the minute clerk for the Court and to appoint a stenographer.
Superior District Court operated for not much longer than four years. In March 1876, the Legislature passed a bill repealing the 1872 act, thereby abolishing the Court. The Governor, however, did not sign the bill, and it was not until March 1877 that the legislation took effect as Act 61 of that year (Act 20 of 1877, passed in February, had made it possible for unsigned legislation to become law). In addition to abolishing the Court, Act 61 further provided for the disposition of suits, both pending and completed, on its dockets. City and state tax suits were transferred according to the last names of the defendants as follows: A-E to Third District Court, F-K to Fourth District Court, L-O to Fifth District Court, and P-Z to Sixth District Court. New tax suits were to be divided among the other courts, also according to the same scheme. All pending non-tax suits were transferred to Third District Court, as were the records for all completed suits.
Extent
1 Volumes (unknown; update when resource record is complete)
Language of Materials
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Deposited by Civil District Court, 1974
Topical
- Title
- Orleans Parish Superior District Court records
- Author
- bsilva
- Date
- 5/13/2023
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Edition statement
- Based on finding aid previously created by City Archives staff; reformatted for ArchivesSpace by bsilva in 2023
Repository Details
Part of the City Archives Repository
Contact:
City Archives & Special Collections
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans LA 70112
504-596-2610
archivist@nolalibrary.org
City Archives & Special Collections
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans LA 70112
504-596-2610
archivist@nolalibrary.org