Preserving L.A.’s Legal and Historical Past

In “L.A. County’s Vanishing Past” (Opinion, March 10), Marc Haefele quotes Roy Ritchie, director of research at the Huntington Library, as saying that at one point court records up to the 1890s were “loaded on a skid, ready to be dumped” when the Huntington intervened to save them. For the record, at no time has the Los Angeles Superior Court loaded up court records that have not been preserved on microfilm to be dumped, nor has the court destroyed original records older than 1920.

While the Huntington Library for years expressed a desire to acquire historical court records (something the court also wanted, since the Huntington had the resources and facilities to keep them from deteriorating, which the court did not and still does not have), the court was legally bound to maintain its records permanently. In 1996, however, after two years of negotiations, an agreement was reached that enabled records from 1850, which was the inception of the court system in Los Angeles, to 1879 to be maintained on loan by the Huntington for preservation and storage for an extended period. The agreement also provides that the Huntington will catalog the records and make them available to the public with the proviso that they be returned to the court should a legal need arise.

This agreement enabled the people of California to remain owners of the material, as the law requires, yet allowed for the preservation of historical documents. The court, on Sept. 20, 1996, issued a news release announcing this agreement.

Jerrianne Hayslett

Director of Public Information

Superior Court, L.A. County