| | | Date | Series Name | Legacy Accession No | Description | MSA Citation |
| |  Details | 1903-1968 | Opinions of the City Solicitor | | Official opinions representing professional decisions or advice rendered. Indexed 1903-1963.
An Index to the Opinions of the City Solicitor of the City of Baltimore, 1903-1931, 3 vols., compiled by Charles Pielert and Horace Flack.
Index to the Opinions of the City Solicitor of Baltimore, 1931-1963, compiled by Carl N. Everstine. | BRG13-1 |
| | Details | 1903-2010 | Case Files | | Notes, memos, opinions, and miscellaneous materials regarding court cases involving the municipal government. Files also include plats, correspondence, and reports. Files are arranged
by case number. Records have been partially inventoried and the Baltimore City Archives does not have a comprehensive list of all cases. Case numbers may be determined several ways:
- Case File Dockets [BRG13-11] cover 1898-1903 and 1934-1978 and provide
numbers for some case files. The dockets generally contain only law suits filed by and against the city, and some files are not listed in them
- Cases from 1919-1934 are indexed by subject. See BRG13-15.
- Some case numbers also appear in the Opinions of the City Solicitor [BRG13-1],
although not every case required the writing of a formal opinion.
Boxes labeled as supplemental case material contain records, mainly title abstracts and plats, that are either oversized or were removed from the main case file. These supplemental
files have the same case number as their main file. See note in box BRG13-2-131.
RESTRICTED ACCESS: Permission to examine these files must be secured from the City Solicitor's office [(410)-396-3012] for any case that is less than 30 years old or which is still an active court case.
| BRG13-2 |
| | Details | 1819-1864 | HRS Indexed Records | | Assorted collections of opinions, correspondence, and legal documents by the City Counselor.
See separate item index at the Baltimore City Archives. | BRG13-3 |
| | Details | 1873-1964 | Street Improvement Property Records | | Material relates to street openings, closings, condemnations, extensions, and widenings. Other types of municipal property such as schools, fire houses, and park lots also are included. Responsibility for verification and abstraction of property titles acquired by the municipality resided originally with an examiner of titles; the 1898 city charter transferred this duty to the Law Department.
This series consists of four sub-groups identified by date and area covered. Sub-group (a) dates from 1873 to 1903 and concerns properties within the 1888 Baltimore City boundary lines. For each property covered there is usually a copy of the municipal ordinance authorizing acquisition and a title abstract. Plats are included in many instances.
Sub-group (b) dates from 1904 to 1907 and covers the area destroyed by the February 1904 fire. Included are title abstracts and copies of related correspondence to and from the Law Department. Plats appear regularly.
Sub-group (c) dates from 1921 to 1926. All parts of the city are covered, but emphasis is upon the area added in 1918. Included are notes, title abstracts, settlement sheets, related correspondence and plats. This material is arranged in a numerical case file sequence and is not indexed.
Sub-group (d) dates from 1926 to 1944 and mostly concerns the area annexed to the municipality in 1918. Title abstracts, settlement sheets, related correspondence and plats are usually available for each property.
See separate listing of streets covered in sub-groups a, b, c, and d available at the Baltimore City Archives. | BRG13-4 |
| | Details | 1900-1971 | Administrative Subject Files | | Correspondence, reports, and legal documents relating primarily to real estate matters and legal representation of the municipality. Many items relate directly to specific case files (Series 2). Internal management of the department and the City Solicitor's service with various municipal organizations are reflected as well.
See file folder listing available at the Baltimore City Archives. | BRG13-5 |
| | Details | 1930-1949 | Administrative Chronological Files | | Mostly incoming and copies of outgoing correspondence pertaining to all aspects of Law Department activity, especially real estate matters. Many items relate directly to specific case files (Series 2). | BRG13-6 |
| | Details | 1900-1980 | Property Acquisition Files | | Material relating to municipal purchase or condemnation of property for urban renewal, street improvement and school construction projects. The files for each project mostly consist of deeds, agreements, title abstracts and reports, and other legal documents associated with transfer of property ownership. Occasionally plats and correpsondence to and from other city agencies, title companies, and private individuals appear as well. There are also references to Law Department case file numbers [BRG13-2] for properties which the municipality had to enter litigation to obtain. All of this material is contained in groupings of folders, one for each property located in a project area.
Boxes 164 through 189 are arranged by street address. But a listing of the projects involved is included.
See separate container listing available at the Baltimore City Archives. | BRG13-7 |
| | Details | 1940-1974 | Real Estate Division | | Subject Files contain correspondence, legal documents, and reports generated by division activities, including acquisition and disposition of property, granting of easements and rights of way, and disputes concerning municipal property fees. Items are grouped together alphabetically.
Chronological Files contain incoming and copies of outgoing correspondence relating to title report and option reviews, property acquisition and
disposition settlements, and lease agreements. Included are reading files of Assistant City Solicitors Eskin T. Boden (1968-73), Harold J. Kaufman (1967-69), Raymond S. Lippens (1968-72), Lloyd McAllister (1944-50, 1964), Harry K. Needle (1972-73), Wilbur J. Preston (1940-43), and H. M. Sandrock (1966-74). Also includes correspondence directed to the Board of Estimates (1971-74) and copies of legal documents (1966-74). | BRG13-8 |
| | Details | 1939-1971 | Friendship Airport Files | | Assorted collections of items relating to Law Department involvement in the planning, construction, and operation of the airport. Most of the subjects covered concern legal matters, especially cases before the U.S. Civil Aviation Board.
See Series 7 for airport property condemnation files and RG.14, Series 1 for related material. See file folder listing available at the Baltimore City Archives. | BRG13-9 |
| | Details | 1911 | Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Track Route Ground Rent Files | | Grouping of title examination documents relating to
property affected by proposed relocation of railroad tracks
and construction of roadway bridges authorized by Ord. 387
(1909). The area covered is adjacent to Camden Station and
the track routes leading to the station, roughly bounded by
Camden Street to the north, Eutaw Street to the west,
Henrietta Street to the south, and Sharp Street to the east.
The material provides no street address numbers for property
examined; items are divided into geographic groupings of
various sizes which are identified by a file number. | BRG13-10 |
| | Details | 1898-1903, 1934-1978 | Case File Dockets | | Volumes include case file number for cases in BRG13-2, as well as the name of plaintiff and
defendant, court of hearing, date, amount claimed, nature of action, and disposition. There is a name index in the front of each volume. Not every case file opened by the Law Department was listed in the dockets, which generally contain only law suits filed by and against the city. There is a seperate index that covers 1919-1934. See BRG13-2 for more information.
| BRG13-11 |
| | Details | 1910-1924 | Voucher Register and Journal | | Listing of Law Department charges for salaries, travel,
title searches, court costs, and related expenditures. | BRG13-12 |
| | Details | | Asbestos Case | | Cooper Beckman and Turk | BRG13-13 |
| | Details | 1911-1925 | Title Abstracts | | Records of title searches conducted in relation to acquisition of property by the City. Many reference casefiles in BRG13-2. Abstracts were recorded in bound abstract volumes, which are not presently in the holdings of the Baltimore City Archives. | BRG13-14 |
| | Details | 1919-1934 | Case File Index | BRG 13 S 2 | This series contains the index to the case files located at BRG13-2 for the years 1919-1934. | BRG13-15 |
| | Details | 2002-2004 | Land Use Practice Group | | The Land Use Practice Group of the Law Department. Note: The Law Department, as of 2013, has updated their structure to include Practice Groups. | BRG13-16 |