Metadata: Civil lawsuits 1702-1850
Collection
- Country:
- Hungary
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Hungary, Hajdú-Bihar County Archives, Debrecen
- Holding institution (official language):
- Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltára, Debrecen
- Postal address:
- 4024 Debrecen, Vármegyeháza u. 1/B
- Phone number:
- +36 52 503 296
- Web address:
- https://mnl.gov.hu/hbml
- Email:
- hbml@mnl.gov.hu
- Reference number:
- IV.A.6.d
- Title:
- Civil lawsuits 1702-1850
- Title (official language):
- Polgári perek 1702-1850
- Creator/accumulator:
- Bihar county
- Date(s):
- 1702/1850
- Language:
- Latin
- Hungarian
- German
- Extent:
- 35.47 linear metres (199 fascicles (batches))
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection ‘Civil lawsuits 1702-1850’ comprises civil law documents and case files from Bihar county. The collection is part of the extensive collection of ‘Documents of Bihar county Tribunal (1699-1848 (1865))’.
The creation of the document collection is closely related to the decree of the Royal Council of Governor-General of 1769, which ordered the division of the county court into three parts: according to the groups of punitive, criminal and civil lawsuits.
The material consists of case files. Proposals related to the legal proceedings, the minutes of interrogations, attached copies, original documents, official certificates and judgements were copied in them or attached to the documents. Most frequently, the lawsuits were about estate or property ownership, debts, individuals, rents or duties. The language of the documents was Latin until 1806, in accordance with the official language in the county. The language of witness interrogation documents and other documents was already Hungarian at that time.
Jewish-related documents can also be found among the case files. The number of Jewish-related case files is 535. The first court case in the collection is from 1754; it deals with the debt case of Philipp Izsák (1754. XIV 708.). (The indication of the first source is merely related to the material of this collection, as the congregation records themselves may cover entries and documents belonging to civil court cases.)
Handbook entries highlight that the collection, which has some general gaps anyway, may have suffered losses regarding its Jewish-related documents. Several case files, records and appendices got lost over the centuries (at least 14 case files). The number of case files (119) was large in the 18th century, although the sources are distributed randomly through the years. Beginning in 1819, an increasing number of case files survived from almost every year. The lawsuits mostly focus on cases of economic issues: debts, property ownership, contracts and businesses. There are examples for in-court settlement of cases between Jewish parties as well as between Jews and non-Jews. The legal proceedings are almost always related to private individuals. The parties in specific lawsuits are mostly men: disputed economic matters of Davidovits (1843. No 4187., 4234.) and Kurlander family (1844. No 3351., 3819.) The cases are particularly valuable as they also include internal sources of Jews (petitions, witness statements). The documents in the collection mostly deal with Jews in Oradea, Váradvelence and Váradolaszi. The documents were written in Latin, Hungarian and a smaller number of them in German.
- Archival history:
-
The foundations of the Archives of Bihar County can be traced back to the 14th century when the conscious preservation of legal documents and property policy documents by sub-prefect and notaries began. Due to the low level of literacy and the fact that the county records were not maintained in a safe place, the notary took the materials and placed them in the county mailbox. Article LXXIII. 1723 regulated the development of archives, and the documents were transferred to the conservatory of the Oradea chapter in Bihar county in 1726. The old documents were placed here from 1729, and the new ones in the town hall building. In 1738, the county purchased a new building for archival purposes. The categorisation of the collection started during the reign of Maria Theresa.
From 1760, the records were placed in congregation shelves. In 1771 a new building was constructed for the archival documents. After the First World War, only a part of Bihar County remained within the borders of Hungary. Part of the Bihar County documents was transferred to Romania under the Treaty of Trianon, according to the territorial jurisdiction, which affected the documents from the feudal era to a lesser extent. The archival material remaining in Hungary was moved to the county hall in Berettyóújfalu. In 1950, according to the decree of the Ministry of the Interior, the source material was transferred to Debrecen, the archives of Hajdú county. Also as part of the new archival decree, the name of the archive became Hajdú-Bihar County Archives. In 1968, following the “state history” period, the documents came under the jurisdiction of the county. In the case of the Bihar county material this meant that they remained in Debrecen in the Hajdú-Bihar County Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The date of the establishment of the tribunal in Bihar County is unknown. ‘Sedria’, the law enforcement organisation, became influential in the 18th century as a result of long development. In Bihar County, pursuant to the resolution of the congregation in 1721, sedrie had to be held annually, and even the permanent starting dates were set in 1745 (2 February, 14 March, 21 August, 14 November). Initially, criminal and civil lawsuit hearings were held together. Later, the trials took place separately for each type. Civil cases were usually discussed on one occasion, and then criminal cases came next. In 1786, the administrative reforms by Joseph II also affected judicial justice, as it abolished the autonomous jurisdiction of the counties. Nevertheless, the county returned to its original practice in 1790. Since 1769, the Council of Governor-General ordered that the material of criminal and civil proceedings be recorded separately. Lipót Viser developed the principle of classification and provided the volume number (Tomus) for each legal suit and part (Pars).
- Access points: locations:
- Bihar county
- Oradea
- Access points: persons/families:
- Davidovits
- Kurlander, Philipp
- Subject terms:
- Financial matters--Debt
- Legal records
- Real estate
- Trade and commerce
- System of arrangement:
- The collection consists of trial documents of civil court issues, the case files. Their independent treatment began in the 1770s and was continued by Lipó Viser. He disregarded the former registration. The numbering in the 1770s began with one, but Viser also began his registration with serial number 1. Similarly, Viser's successors began numbering the systematised documents with 1. It was typical of the material, and if a document was found during the systematisation, whenever it was created, it was placed in the next volume in the sorting. Therefore, it is impossible to indicate a year cycle for certain registers.
- Finding aids:
- Volumes 249-251 and 253 offer guidance to the collection. The elenchuses refer to the volumes and parts, and the unique heading number of the cases.
- Yerusha Network member:
- University of Szeged
- Author of the description:
- Dr. Tibor Almási and Dr. Erzsébet Mislovics, University of Szeged, 2020