ARCHIVIST OF THE HALL OF RECORDS 41

RECORDS MANAGEMENT DIVISION

In the Report of the Archivist last year, attention was called to
the increased time devoted by the Records Management staff to records
problems and space requirements of the Clerks of Court and Registers
of Wills in the counties and in Baltimore City. This year, our assistance
to these officials demanded considerable time.

The Uniform Commercial Code, adopted by the Maryland General
Assembly of 1963, became effective February 1, 1964. The Code affects
any transaction which is intended to create a security interest in personal
property. A lender or seller (secured party) wishing to perfect his
interest in such a transaction can do so by having a Financing Statement
recorded in the office of the Clerk of Court.

Under the Code, a Financing Statement is effective for only five
years, unless a Continuation Statement is filed extending it for an
additional five years. Although provision was made in the Code for
the destruction of records created under it, no such provision was made
for those created under the laws repealed by the Code. Thus the Clerics
were required to retain large quantities of records such as chattels,
conditional sales, etc., because of the legal prohibition against destruc-
tion of any but "housekeeping records" or records of the internal
management of their offices.

Working with the Legislative Committee of the Clerks of Court
Association and the Attorney General's office, we obtained legislation
in 1965 authorizing the destruction of any record created under the
laws repealed by the Code, after the expiration of five years and sixty
days from the date of the last pertinent entry.

During the 1965 session, the General Assembly also relieved the
Clerks of the Circuit Courts of the responsibility of accepting records
of justices of the peace, trial magistrates, or judges of the People's
Courts who vacated their offices for any reason. Prior to the enactment
of this legislation, Circuit Court Clerks were required to accept the
dockets and papers of these officials, maintain them as other records,
and deliver transcripts from them. This not only added to the burdens
of the Clerk but, on occasion, impeded judicial processes. For example,
if a trial magistrate resigned or died while legal proceedings were
still pending before him, his records were required to be turned over
to the Circuit Court Clerk. The Clerk then had to certify the records