The
Most records created by Texas state agencies are not copyrighted and may be freely used in any way. State records also include materials received by, not created by, state agencies. Copyright remains with the creator. The researcher is responsible for complying with U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.).
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Three characteristics of the judicial system in Texas distinguish it from the national norm: it has two appellate courts of last resort, its trial courts do not have uniform jurisdiction of subject matter, and its judges are chosen in partisan elections. The state has three levels of trial courts-district, county, and inferior-and there is no uniformity of jurisdiction among the courts at each level. To be sure of a trial court's jurisdiction, one must examine the statute that established it. There are two levels of appellate courts: the courts of appeals and the two courts of last resort, which are the Court of Criminal Appeals and the Supreme Court. The appellate level courts are the courts of appeals, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Supreme Court.
Following Reconstruction, the Texas Supreme Court became overwhelmed with cases on appeal. To help relieve the burden, the Court of Appeals (later known as the Court of Criminal Appeals) was created by constitutional amendment in 1876 and an intermediate level of appeals courts for civil cases was established by constitutional amendment in 1891 (Texas Constitution, Article V, Section 1). The new courts of civil appeals (later renamed courts of appeals) were given jurisdiction over most civil appeals from the district and county courts; further review by the Supreme Court was discretionary with that court. The courts of civil appeals were also given original jurisdiction of appeals in non-capital criminal cases, and the Court of Criminal Appeals was given jurisdiction for discretionary review of the decisions. The system of intermediate appellate courts made it possible for the Supreme Court to regulate its docket by exercising its discretion to deny review of most appeals. Another advantage of the new courts was that the capacity of the civil appellate system could be expanded by the formation of more courts of civil appeals.
In 1967 the state was divided into fourteen court of appeals districts by an amendment to the Texas Constitution (Article V, Section 1); in each is a court of appeals that has a chief justice and at least two other justices, who serve four-year terms. Courts of appeals hear most appeals from the county and district trial courts (the biggest exception being death-penalty cases, which go directly to the Court of Criminal Appeals). An appeal to these courts is based on the written record of a trial. The appellate courts do not hear witnesses. The decisions of the courts of appeals may be reviewed by the Court of Criminal Appeals (in criminal law matters) or the Supreme Court (in other kinds of cases), except that the decisions of the courts of appeals on questions of fact are conclusive.
At an 1892 special session called to implement the 1891 constitutional amendment, the 22nd Legislature, through Senate Bill 18, divided the state into three supreme judicial districts. The Texas Court of Appeals (1st) was the first of the three original appeals courts with its seat in Galveston. The Court is currently composed of a Chief Justice and nine justices. It has intermediate appellate jurisdiction of both civil and criminal cases appealed from lower courts in thirteen counties of Texas; in civil cases where judgment rendered exceeds $100, exclusive of costs, and other civil proceedings as provided by law; and in criminal cases except in post-conviction writs of habeas corpus and where the death penalty has been imposed (Texas Government Code Annotated, Section 22.201). The court hears appeals from the following counties: Austin, Brazoria, Burleson, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Harris, Trinity, Walker, Waller, and Washington. The Court disposed of a total of 1,470 cases in fiscal year 2002.
Information for the this agency history has been taken from the
Records comprise minutes, opinions, legal documents (including appeals, briefs, orders, statements of costs, trial transcripts, motions, opinions, and correspondence), dockets, fee books, cash books, financial documents, receipts, accounts, cost books, law license applications, application volumes, clippings, execution warrants, and indexes, dating 1887-1975 (bulk 1892-1975), of the Texas Court of Appeals (1st).
The minute entries state when the court met and adjourned, include summaries of judgements on appeal, and summarize the cases and motions submitted to the court daily. Dates on which mandates were issued appear in the margins. The minutes record remarks made before the court on special occasions, such as memorializing the deaths of judges or unveiling portraits. The opinions record the appeal decisions of the justices of the First Court of Appeals. The volumes dating to the 1890s are handwritten and some of the opinions in the first two volumes were recorded in a green ink that has faded and become difficult to read. The remainder of the volumes are typescript.
The case files document the cases appealed to the First Court of Appeals in Galveston. A number of the 1892 cases were originally directed to the Texas Supreme Court on appeal but were redirected to the First Court upon its creation. As a result, some of the files bear stamps and numbers indicating receipt by the Supreme Court and then later stamps indicating receipt by the First Court; it is not uncommon to find materials dating from 1891 in these files. Two indexes provide access to the case files.
The dockets include trial dockets, motion dockets, file dockets,
execution dockets, general dockets, and fee books. Each entry in the
Every page in each of the fee book volumes is an account of the court fees and costs applying to an individual case filed with the First Court of Appeals. The information on each page includes the style of the case, the case number(?), name of the county, names of the principals, names of the sureties, the date filed, the date disposed of, the decision of the court, the author of the opinion, an enumerated list of the court fees and costs, and by whom and when the fees were paid. The dates provided in the volume list are the dates on which cases were filed; on occasion a case could take over a year to be disposed.
The two cash books list the charges applied to each case. Some portions of the books contain a list of costs, including the date, the item for which the court is charging (a copy of the opinion, for example), the price, the date the clerk was paid, and the amount paid. Other portions of the volumes contain the date, case number, style, total of monies collected, a breakdown of the amount of money that was owed and distributed to the state, Supreme Court clerk, trial clerk, sheriff, and miscellaneous and, finally, the total remittance amount. The books contain a number of loose cost bills and reports.
The law license application/examination volume, 1904-1919, contains the names and examination scores of applicants for law licenses. The applicants are in roughly alphabetical order. Each entry includes the applicant's name, residence, course of study scores, general average, action taken, and the date. The actions taken were to issue or refuse a license, apparently based of the scores of the applicant. A few pages of loose correspondence may be found between pages. Two indexes appear to refer to a library of law books and journals. One volume contains an index with notations of number of digests, missing, and volumes held. The other volume appears to be a subject index. Both volumes are in very poor condition.
The boxes of miscellaneous writs of execution to collect fees, fee docket, financial documents, receipts, accounts, cost books, and law license applications appear to have been maintained by the clerk of the First Court. The records are unorganized, date from the 1900s to 1950s, and show some evidence of past mold damage.
To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.
These records are organized into five series.
(Identify the item and cite the series), Records, Texas Court of Appeals (1st). Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Nancy Enneking, April 2004
Tony Black, September 2004
Accession numbers: 1979/238, 1980/046, 1980/194, 1980/263, 1980/306, 1980/309, 1985/046, 2004/228
These records were transferred to the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, a Regional Historical Resource Depository [RHRD] of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, by the First District Court of Civil Appeals on July 30, 1979; November 11, 1979; April 2, 1980; July 1, 1980; August 21, 1980; and August 29, 1985. In 2003, the Houston Metropolitan Research Center chose to drop its RHRD status and the records of the First Court were shipped to the Texas State Archives in Austin during December 2003 and January 2004. The indexes to case files were transferred to the Texas State Archives by the 1st Court of Appeals on August 13, 2004, after being microfilmed.
The two indexes to case files, 1892-1970, have been microfilmed as a result of funding raised by the Friends of the Clayton Library in Houston, Texas. A CD-ROM was also created of the indexes, and will be used by Archives staff to identify vault numbers for specific cases.
Records comprise thirteen volumes of minutes, dating 1892-1958, of the Texas Court of Appeals (1st). The entries state when the court met and adjourned, include summaries of judgements on appeal, and summarize the cases and motions submitted to the court daily. Dates on which mandates were issued appear in the margins. The minutes record remarks made before the court on special occasions, such as memorializing the deaths of judges or unveiling portraits. Some of the volumes of minutes are in poor condition.
These records are arranged in order by volume number; entries within volumes are chronological.
(Identify the item), Minutes, Records, Texas Court of Appeals (1st). Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Accession number: 1979/238
These records were transferred to the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, a Regional Historical Resource Depository [RHRD] of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, by the First District Court of Civil Appeals on July 30, 1979. In 2003, the Houston Metropolitan Research Center chose to drop its RHRD status and the records of the First Court were shipped to the Texas State Archives in Austin during December 2003 and January 2004.
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Nancy Enneking, April 2004
Records consist of 31 volumes of opinions delivered by the Texas Court of Appeals (1st) between 1892 and 1929. The opinions record the appeal decisions of the justices of the First Court of Appeals. For each case adjudicated, the volumes contain the case number, style, text of the opinion, name of the judge, decision, and the dates the opinions were delivered and filed (early opinions do not record the delivery date). The volumes dating to the 1890s are handwritten and some of the opinions in the first two volumes were recorded in a green ink that has faded and become difficult to read. The remainder of the volumes are typescript. Some of the volumes show signs of past water and mold damage.
These records are arranged in order by volume number. The opinions within the volumes are generally chronological according to the date on which they were filed.
(Identify the item), Opinions, Records, Texas Court of Appeals (1st). Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Accession number: 1979/238
These records were transferred to the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, a Regional Historical Resource Depository [RHRD] of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, by the First District Court of Civil Appeals on July 30, 1979. In 2003, the Houston Metropolitan Research Center chose to drop its RHRD status and the records of the First Court were shipped to the Texas State Archives in Austin during December 2003 and January 2004.
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Nancy Enneking, April 2004
Records consist of legal documents including appeals, briefs, orders, statements of costs, trial transcripts, motions, opinions, and correspondence, plus two indexes to case files, dating 1891-1975. They comprise the 1892-1974 case files of the Texas Court of Appeals (1st). The records document the cases appealed to the First Court of Appeals in Galveston. A number of the 1892 cases were originally directed to the Texas Supreme Court on appeal but were redirected to the First Court upon its creation. As a result, some of the files bear stamps and numbers indicating receipt by the Supreme Court and then later stamps indicating receipt by the First Court; it is not uncommon to find materials dating from 1891 in these files.
Please note that the case files are stored at the State Records Center. Records requested before 10:00 a.m. will usually be available for review by an archivist by 4:00 p.m. the same day. Records requested after 10:00 a.m. and before 3:00 p.m will usually be available for review by an archivist by noon the next day.
The records are arranged in numerical order by vault number. The researcher must first consult the index books listed at the beginning of the container listing below, to determine the vault number that corresponds to each case. (Vault number 11,249 is, for example, case number 15,296.)
One index is the appellee-appellant index (in other words, it is roughly alphabetical by the name of the appellee); the other is the appellant-appellee index. The second index (appellant-appellee) more frequently gives the vault numbers, and will consequently need to be consulted to gain access. The first page of this second index also contains a chart matching case numbers with decades for the years 1892-1948 (e.g. Case numbers 8,260-9,798 date 1922-1932).
A CD-ROM version of the indexes is also available for staff use. The CD contains images of the original indexes, but it provides no keywork searching.
(Identify the item), Case files, Records, Texas Court of Appeals (1st). Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Accession numbers: 1980/046, 1980/194, 1980/263, 1980/306, 1980/309, 1985/046, 2004/228
These records were transferred to the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, a Regional Historical Resource Depository [RHRD] of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, by the First District Court of Civil Appeals on November 11, 1979; April 2, 1980; July 1, 1980; August 21, 1980; and August 29, 1985. In 2003, the Houston Metropolitan Research Center chose to drop its RHRD status and the records of the First Court were shipped to the Texas State Archives in Austin during December 2003 and January 2004. The indexes to case files were transferred to the Texas State Archives by the 1st Court of Appeals on August 13, 2004, after being microfilmed.
The
The indexes to cases have no restrictions.
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The CD-ROM version of the indexes may be used by staff as one way to locate vault numbers of cases. It requires a computer with a CD-ROM drive. See Arrangement statement for additional details.
Nancy Enneking, April 2004
Tony Black, September 2004
Records comprise dockets and fee books with a few pieces of correspondence, clippings, and execution warrants, dating 1887-1954 (bulk 1892-1949), of the Texas Court of Appeals (1st). The dockets include trial dockets, motion dockets, file dockets, execution dockets, general dockets, and fee books.
Each entry in the
Every page in each of the
A box of miscellaneous records contains writs of execution to collect fees and a fee docket that appear to have maintained by the clerk of the First Court. The records are unorganized, date from the 1900s to 1950s, and show some evidence of past mold damage.
These records are arranged in volume number order by record type. Trial dockets are in case number order. Motion dockets are ordered by motion number and are chronological within each volume until Volume 4, after that they are in chronological order across volumes (a few motion numbers are out of order). File dockets are in case number and chronological order. Execution dockets are chronological and seem to be in numerical order. General dockets are in numerical order. The entries in the fee books are arranged in numerical order by what may be the case number; the entries are also in chronological order by filing date.
(Identify the item), Dockets and fee books, Records, Texas Court of Appeals (1st). Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Accession number: 1979/238
These records were transferred to the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, a Regional Historical Resource Depository [RHRD] of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, by the First District Court of Civil Appeals on July 30, 1979. In 2003, the Houston Metropolitan Research Center chose to drop its RHRD status and the records of the First Court were shipped to the Texas State Archives in Austin during December 2003 and January 2004.
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Nancy Enneking, April 2004
Records consist of cash books, miscellaneous financial documents, receipts, accounts, cost books, law license applications and application volumes, and indexes, dating 1892-1956, of the Texas Court of Appeals (1st). The two cash books list the charges applied to each case. Some portions of the books contain a list of costs, including the date, the item for which the court is charging (a copy of the opinion, for example), the price, the date the clerk was paid, and the amount paid. Other portions of the volumes contain the date, case number, style, total of monies collected, a breakdown of the amount of money that was owed and distributed to the state, Supreme Court clerk, trial clerk, sheriff, and miscellaneous and, finally, the total remittance amount. The books contain a number of loose cost bills and reports.
The law license application/examination volume, 1904-1919, contains the names and examination scores of applicants for law licenses. The applicants are in roughly alphabetical order. Each entry includes the applicant's name, residence, course of study scores, general average, action of the board, and the date. The actions of the board were to issue or refuse a license, apparently based of the scores of the applicant. A few pages of loose correspondence may be found between pages. According to the provisions of Senate Bill 56, Twenty-eighth Legislature, Regular Session (1903), each of the Courts of Civil Appeals was required to keep a register of all applicants, their grades, and an abstract of licenses. The record of applications for licenses to practice law fulfills two of the three requirements, providing name and residence of the applicant, grade average or placement in prescribed courses of study, overall average, and date license was granted or refused.
The indexes appear to refer to a library of law books and journals. One volume contains an index with notations of number of digests, missing, and volumes held. The other volume appears to be a subject index. Both volumes are in very poor condition.
The boxes of miscellaneous financial documents, receipts, accounts, cost books, and law license applications appear to have been maintained by the clerk of the First Court. The records are unorganized, date from the 1900s to 1950s, and show some evidence of past mold damage.
Additional financial records may be found in the Execution
dockets, General dockets, and Fee books in the series
The volumes are grouped by fee book and cash book; the box of miscellaneous financial records appears at the end. The entries in the cash books are chronological.
(Identify the item), Assorted, Records, Texas Court of Appeals (1st). Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Accession number: 1979/238
These records were transferred to the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, a Regional Historical Resource Depository [RHRD] of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, by the First District Court of Civil Appeals on July 30, 1979. In 2003, the Houston Metropolitan Research Center chose to drop its RHRD status and the records of the First Court were shipped to the Texas State Archives in Austin during December 2003 and January 2004.
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Nancy Enneking, April 2004