Louis' Methodology

Methodology

I stripped the following dockets for references to J. Steward Davis and his partner, George W. Evans, for the years 1923, 1925 and 1927. This involved checking case indexes for cases against Davis or Evans and going page by page searching the attorney columns.

    1923:

        BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT
      Equity Docket A, 1923, 63A [T55-65, 0/64/4/3]
        Equity Docket B, 1923, 63B [T464-49, 3/4/2/49]

        BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2
        Equity Docket A, 1923, 32A [T996-32, 0/62/14/3]
        Equity Docket B, 1923, 32B [T997-32, 3/18/7/26]

        BALTIMORE CITY COURT
        Cases Instituted, 1923, GCL 54A [T556-46, 3/34/3/4]
        Cases Instituted, 1923, GCL 54B [T556-47, 3/34/3/5]
        Cases Instituted, 1923, GCL 54C [T556-48, 3/34/3/6]
        Cases Instituted, 1923, GCL 54D [T556-49, 3/34/3/7]

        BALTIMORE SUPERIOR COURT
        Cases Instituted, 1923, Nos. 1-400 [C1497-103, 2/16/12/40]
        Cases Instituted, 1923, Nos. 401-800 [C1497-104, 2/16/12/41]
        Cases Instituted, 1923, Nos. 801-1200 [C1497-105, 2/16/12/42]

BALTIMORE CITY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
Cases Instituted, 1923, JYC [T511-70, 3/2/11/25]

BALTIMORE CITY CRIMINAL COURT
Criminal Docket, 1923 [C1849-133, 3/30/4/18]

    1925:

        BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT
        Equity Docket A, Miscellaneous, 1925, 65A [T55-69, 0/64/4/5] and [T55-70, 3/16/4/29]
        Equity Docket B, Divorces and Foreclosures, 1925, 65B [T464-51, 3/4/3/1]

        BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2
        Equity Docket A, Miscellaneous, 1925, 34A [T996-34, 0/62/14/5]
        Equity Docket B, Divorces and Foreclosures, 1925, 34B [T997-34, 3/18/7/28]

        BALTIMORE CITY COURT
        Cases Instituted, 1925, GCL 57A [T556-54, 3/34/3/12]
        Cases Instituted, 1925, GCL 57B [T556-55, 3/34/3/13]
        Cases Instituted, 1925, GCL 57C [T556-56, 3/34/3/14]

        BALTIMORE CITY SUPERIOR COURT
        Cases Instituted, 1925, Nos. 1-400 [C1497-109, 2/16/12/46]
        Cases Instituted, 1925, Nos. 401-800 [C1497-110, 2/16/12/47]
        Cases Instituted, 1925, Nos. 801-1200 [C1497-111, 2/16/12/48]

BALTIMORE CITY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
Cases Instituted, 1925, JYC [T511-72, 3/2/11/27]

BALTIMORE CITY CRIMINAL COURT
Criminal Docket, 1925 [C1849-135, 3/30/4/20]

    1927:

        BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT
        Equity Docket A, Miscellaneous, 1927, 67A [T55-72, 0/64/4/7]
        Equity Docket B, Divorces and Foreclosures, 1927, 67B [T464-53, 3/4/3/3]

        BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2
        Equity Docket A, Miscellaneous, 1927, 36A [T996-36, 0/62/14/1]
        Equity Docket B, Divorces and Foreclosures, 1927, 36B [T997-36, 3/18/7/30]

        BALTIMORE CITY COURT
        Cases Instituted, 1927, GCL 60A [T556-60, 3/34/3/18]
        Cases Instituted, 1927, GCL 60B [T556-61, 3/34/3/19]
        Cases Instituted, 1927, GCL 60C [T556-62, 3/34/3/20]

        BALTIMORE CITY SUPERIOR COURT
        Cases Instituted, 1927, 1927/01-1927/04 [C1497-114, 2/16/13/3]
        Cases Instituted, 1927, 1927/05-1927/08 [C1497-116, 2/16/13/5]
        Cases Instituted, 1927, 1927/09-1927/12 [C1497-117, 2/16/13/6]

BALTIMORE CITY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
Cases Instituted, 1927, JYC [T511-74, 3/2/11/29]

BALTIMORE CITY CRIMINAL COURT
Criminal Docket, 1927 [C1849-137, 3/30/4/22]

These dockets were NOT searched (for the same years):

BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT
Equity Docket C (Foreclosures) [T465]

BALTIMORE CITY CIRCUIT COURT NO. 2
Equity Docket C (Foreclosures) [T998]

I also did not search police dockets or material relating to the Juvenile Court, Register of Wills or Orphans Court (within the office of the Register of Wills). The courts that were not stripped are less important, but it may be necessary to look at them eventually for the sake of completeness.

The following information was noted: plaintiff, defendant, first filing date, lawyers involved (assisting and opposing Davis and or Evans), charge or subject of the suit (if listed in the docket entry), verdict, sentence or outcome, page number, case number, location of docket and case papers, and any other significant or unusual information that appeared in the docket entry. Some cases have more information, reflecting a closer review of the case papers. Information such as court costs, judges' names, and dates other than first filing were usually not noted.

A note of caution regarding determining which cases were heard by which judge: It is true that the Chief Judge assigned judges to a particular court for a given term or year and such assignments do appear in the Minutes of the Supreme Bench. However, a more accurate description of this system was that a judge was given a court that was to be his primary responsibility. Sometimes multiple judges were assigned to a court, especially if there was a higher than expected volume of cases. Sometimes this was done on a temporary basis and so not listed in the minutes. Some judges were assigned as "judge at large," assisting wherever necessary based on volume of cases. There may have even been some temporary movement or rotation by judges who were assigned to a specific court. In other words, the assignments in the Supreme Bench Minutes should not be used as an absolute indicator of which judges heard which cases, though perhaps they may be used as a general indicator. The only absolute indicator is the item "before" (as in "the case was heard before Judge ___") in the docket entries.

The information was placed in html files by year and in excel spreadsheets. Davis and Evans each have their own spreadsheet covering all years searched and Evans has his own html file. Cases that specifically noted Evans (not just "Davis & Evans") were placed in the Evans spreadsheet and html file. Nearly all of the cases during the period that Davis and Evans were in partnership together are listed as "Davis & Evans" and it is difficult to tell whether the case involved one or the other or both. Cases labelled "Davis & Evans" were placed in the Davis html files and the Davis spreadsheet. Cases in which Davis and Evans were mentioned individually by their full names were listed jointly in the Davis and the Evans htmls and spreadsheets.

Case papers were pulled for all courts except Criminal (Criminal Papers are at the HF warehouse). They reside in clamshells on a temporary holding shelf, 1/53/7. If papers were not found (this happened most often for the Court of Common Pleas), a notation was made in the spreadsheet.

For at least the years 1928-1929, it may be helpful to search the dockets for references to Evans. This was not done initially as he was not considered a part of the project at the time that they were searched. Evans first shows up in the 1923 Baltimore City Criminal Court docket as taking recognizance for defendants in mid September. He first shows up as an attorney, practicing with Davis, Dec. 8, 1923 in the City and Superior Courts.