Boston (Mass.). Law Department

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Includes the City's Law Department records concerning the class action suit brought by black registered voters against Boston's Mayor, City Council, School Committee, Election Commissioners and City Clerk challenging the at-large voting procedure for the election of members of the Boston School Committee. The court found in favor of the defendants.

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Records from the suit brought by the City of Boston against manufacturers of materials containing asbestos for reimbursement for the cost of abatement of the asbestos in public buildings. Includes contracts of city-owned buildings from 1923-1971 that were used as exhibits in the case. Buildings include schools, libraries, fire stations, police stations, city hospital, etc. Also includes records from the case itself.

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Record of title examinations on properties purchased by the city. Includes Austin Farm and other properties.

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Docket of cases handled by the Law Department. Lists names of parties, date of process, court, cause of action, remarks and results.

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Includes annual reports of the Law Department from 1911-1974 with gaps and a published copy of the will of Benjamin Franklin and of the proceedings of the Courts and of the Managers of the Franklin Fund relating to the will which were compiled by the Corporation Counsel.

Scope and Contents note One of the functions of the Law Department is to provide formal and informal opinions to the Mayor, the City Council, the Boston School Committee, and City or County Officials and other employees in matters relating to the discharge of their official duties. This collection documents the communications between various city officials and employees and the Law Department regarding these requests. The collection is divided into two series based on the format of the records. The first series...

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Law Department files relating to Democratic National Convention, 2004 including MOUs.

Scope and Contents note This collection includes files kept by the City's Law Department on various issues, cases, questions that came before the department during the 20th century. Significant issues, etc. represented in this collection include the Cocoanut Grove Fire, West End Redevelopment, World War, City Real estate holdings, gifts to the city, bridge construction, City Hospital, City Hall construction and many others. The first series includes a numbered reference file that was kept by the Law Department...

Scope and Contents note One of the duties of the Corporation Counsel is to provide opinions on the law of any subject or question that may be submitted to him by the Mayor or the City Council and on any subject or question relating to the discharge of their or his duties that may be submitted to him by the School Committee, by any Committee of the City Council, or by four members of the City Council, or by any Officer in charge of a Department of the City government. This series includes the official opinions of...

Scope and Contents note This collection consists of records of the City's Law Department concerning the "School Cases" relating to desegregation in the late 1960s-1970s. The major case represented in this collection is Tallulah Morgan et al. v. James Hennigan et al. (later known as Morgan v. Kerrigan, Morgan v. McDonough, Morgan v. Sullivan, etc. due to the changes in the School Committee presidency). Also included in this collection are files of the following two cases: Boston School Committee v. Board of...