Mixed Court of Sfîntu Gheorghe

Collection

Holding institution:: National Archives of Romania, Covasna county directorate

Holding institution (official language):: Serviciul judeţean Covasna al Arhivelor Naţionale Române

Scope and content:: The fonds comprises the files of the Mixed Court of Sfîntu Gheorghe from 1899 to 1951. It contains the official correspondence of the Court with County Committee for the agrarian reform, the General Direction for agriculture in Cluj, the Agrarian Committee in Bucharest and the commissions for agrarian reform of Sfîntu Gheorghe and Tîrgu Secuiesc. It also includes files of civil, criminal, successional, tutorial, divorce, insult, theft, speculation and pretension cases judged by the Court and files concerning the declaration of death of deported persons during the Holocaust from the area for which the Court was responsible. There are numerous files that include Jewish references, among them File No. 98/1918 concerning the properties of Emil Schwartz from Sfîntu Gheorghe; File No. 186/1920 of Samuel Berger accused of sabotage action; File 214/1921 of Iren Goldstein requesting payments for her child; File No. 349/1924 concerning financial pretensions of the Hungarian Commercial Bank against Henrik Grunberg.

Archival history:: The fonds was preserved by the Popular Court of Sfîntu Gheorghe district, before being transferred to the Covasna county directorate of the Romanian National Archives in 1961. It was inventoried in 1974 and made available to researchers.

Administrative/biographical history:: Local Courts were organised on the basis of laws XXXI-XXXII of 1871 and their competence was restricted to cases of under 500 forints in value and carrying sentences of less than six months imprisonment. These Courts judged civil, criminal and cadastral cases in their area. After the First World War the system was reorganised by the Romanian legislation including the Order No. 121/1919, the law concerning the judicial unification of 1924 and the law for judicial organisation of 1938. The competence of the local Courts named Mixed Courts included all categories of cases (civil, criminal, commercial, successional, cadastral, orphans etc.) judged as first instance and up to 300 Lei in value. These Courts had an important role in the cases connected with the implementation of the agrarian reforms of 1921 and 1945. Between 1940 and 1944 the Hungarian administration reintroduced the Hungarian judicial organisation. After 1945 the interwar model became valid again until 1947-1952 when the Communist regime introduced a new judicial organisation based on the Soviet model.

Access points: persons/families:: Berger, Samuel; Goldstein, Iren; Grunberg, Henrik; Schwartz, Emil

System of arrangement:: The fonds is organised in thematic sections, within which the files are arranged in chronological order.

Access, restrictions:: A part of the fonds is not open for researchers for reasons of protection of privacy of persons who could be still alive (Law No. 16/1996, art. 30).

Finding aids:: Inventories no. 7 and 155, held by the Covasna county directorate of the Romanian National Archives.

Yerusha Network member:: Romanian Institute for the Research of National Minorities

Author of the description:: Tóth Levente, archivist - Protestant Theological Institute - 2019; Ladislau Gyémánt, emeritus professor - 2019