Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1900-1963 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
115.83 cubic feet. 421 oversize volumes.
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
On October 8, 1840, Kamehameha III granted the first constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, which vested the judicial power of government in a Supreme Court, consisting of the King as chief judge, Premier (kuhina nui), and four individuals appointed by the representative body. Island courts held by their respective governors functioned as circuit courts on their respective island. The island governors were given powers to appoint judges who functioned as district magistrates for the island. Chapter XLVII of the Laws of 1842 mandated that the Supreme judges assemble in Honolulu each June and in Lahaina each December to try cases appealed to them. Selection criteria for foreign and native juries were provided for in the Laws of 1842. The Third Act of Kamehameha III in 1847 titled "An Act to Organize the Judiciary Department of the Hawaiian Islands" created four levels of courts - the Supreme Court, the Superior Court of Law and Equity, four circuit court jurisdictions, and district courts.
By 1864, the First Circuit Court on Oahu was gradually phased out of existence and its judicial powers were transferred to the Supreme Court. In 1865 the circuit court was abolished, but the appellate jurisdictions in chambers remained as a function. Such proceedings were referred to as Intermediary Court, but the person presiding was called the First Circuit Court Judge. Appeals from the District Court of the First Circuit were heard in Intermediary Court. In 1874, the intermediary function of the First Circuit Court judge was transferred to the Supreme Court which now held both original and appellate jurisdiction for the island of Oahu.
In 1892, the functions of the Supreme Court were restricted to those of an appellate court. Its functions as a circuit court were assumed by a reestablished First Circuit Court.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Minute books were kept by the clerks of the several divisions of First Circuit Court and contain summaries of court proceedings. Entries contain court date; court orders; names of attorneys, defendants, plaintiffs, and other parties involved; judgments; and sentences in criminal cases. The records include minutes of cases heard both in open court and in the judge’s chambers. Open court matters include accident (workers compensation), annulment, civil, criminal, divorce, equity, law, probate and small estate cases as well as grand jury reports. Closed proceedings (matters heard in chambers) include adoption, probate (guardianship), paternity (bastardy) and special proceedings cases (which involve such things as habeas corpus applications, mandamus, petitions to initiate judicial actions, and water rights cases). Some of the cases are appeals from District Court or Land Court.
The volumes also contain administrative matters such as applications for licenses to practice law, appointments of judges to the bench, appointments of court clerks, trial jury drawings, orders for official mourning for deceased government officials, and for continuation and adjournment of court terms.
Adoption, guardianship, and paternity cases may provide names of biological parents, adoptive parents, and guardians, as well as background information. Annulment, desertion and marital separation cases were sometimes filed as divorce or equity cases. In the early 1950's, most law cases were redesignated as civil cases. Divorce cases sometimes include indication of the ethnicity of the parties.
Civil, equity, and law minutes note court actions to adjudicate property claims and provide legal remedies in disputes. Issues include actions for injunctions, adverse possession, partition of land parcels, breach of contract, damages, contested deeds and wills, disputes over land titles, ejectments and evictions from property, quiet title actions, tax appeals, and water rights. For example, the law cases include breach of contract civil lawsuits resulting from the inability of businesses to collect from insurance companies for damages incurred during the Chinatown fires of 1900-1901; the equity cases include matters regarding large estates and trusts such as Bishop, Campbell, Queen Emma, Lunalilo, McInerny and others. Probate and Small Estate cases contain proceedings dealing with distribution of property and wealth of the deceased.
Criminal proceedings contain charges filed by the government against the defendant, defendant’s pleading, minutes of the trial, verdict, and sentence. Criminal cases of gambling, work stoppages, riots and bigamy among Chinese immigrants are a source of local history and social customs in the Territory of Hawaii. Volume 27 contains minutes of a 1909 trial of agricultural workers involved in a Waipahu labor riot (Criminal case 4611). Minutes of the 1932 trial (Criminal case 11891/”the Massie Case”) of Grace Fortescue, Thomas H. Massie, Edward J. Lord, and Albert O. Jones are in volume 116.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The volumes are arranged chronologically by annual court term and thereunder by numbered court division. There is some overlap in earlier volumes because they were often kept for more than a year, and sometimes for shorter periods. Minutes in earlier volumes are in chronological order by hearing date. In later volumes, other arrangements exist. When it is not chronological, the Container List provides arrangement information. “Arranged alphabetically,” indicates that arrangement is alphabetical by name of: the defendant in criminal and bastardy (paternity) cases; the libellant in divorce cases; the plaintiff in law cases; the applicant or petitioner in adoption, accident (workmen’s compensation), annulment, equity, separate maintenance/marital separation and special proceedings cases; the deceased in probate and small estate cases; and the incompetent, insane, minor, non compos mentis or spendthrift in guardianship cases. Exceptions to the above, including errors when the volumes were assembled and bound, are provided in detail on the Container List.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access to some volumes containing minutes of adoption, guardianship, and paternity cases is restricted by law.
Adoption records shall not be inspected by any person, including the parties to the proceedings, except by order of the family court. HRS 578-15(b)(1).
Court records in paternity proceedings, formerly referred to as bastardy, shall be withheld from public inspection. HRS 571-84.
Court records in guardianship proceedings shall be withheld from public inspection. HRS 571-11(3); HRS 571-84.
Restrictions on access to records in the State Archives whether, confidential, classified, or private, shall be lifted and removed 80 years after creation of the record. HRS 94-7.
Conditions governing reproduction
For preservation purposes, oversize volumes may not be photocopied.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Handwritten and typescript leaves in bound, acco-fastened and three-ring books in fair to good condition. Many of the older volumes have insect damage. Several have water damage and a few have separated covers or deteriorated binding. A few have tipped-in pages.
Finding aids
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Availability of indexes to individual minute books is noted in the container list.
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Created on 1994-06, P. Lai
Revised on 1996-10, 1996-11, 1997-04, 2001-06, and 2002-06
Additions on 2002-11, A. Hoof
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Hawaii Revised Statutes, 1993 Replacement.
Title 8 - Public Proceedings and Records, Chapter 94 - Public Archives, Disposal of Records.
Title 31 Family. Chapter 571 - Family Courts. Chapter 578 – Adoption.
Archivist's note
1994-06, P. Lai: Created
1996-10, 1996-11, 1997-04, 2001-06, and 2002-06: Revised
2002-11, A. Hoof: Additions
2020-09-09, Joel Horowitz: Entered into AtoM