Legal records

BCC/4/1/4

Legal records

1759 - 1914

This sub series comprises around three boxes of legal papers relating to a court case taken against the Council by a property owner in Bull Street, Birmingham, during the 1890s. An inscription on the damaged wrapping paper that covered the initial deposit notes that the case concerned alleged encroachments by defendants on 99 and 100 Bull Street Birmingham on plaintiff’s (Horton's) premises adjoining new premises.

The property formed one of a number of buildings on the street purchased and demolished by the Council to facilitate street widening and improvement works by the Improvement Committee after 1875. The case was eventually heard at the Court of Chancery, London. Although Birmingham City Council as a corporate body was amongst the defendants in the case, the papers have been catalogued with the remaining records of the Improvement Committee as they relate very specifically to the functions of that Council body.

The records themselves document the committee's legal, land purchasing and planning responsibilities, as they include title deeds and schedules of properties to be purchased, building plans and photographs. The collection has been arranged in accordance with the order in which they appeared in a list of documents presented (see BCC/1/AX/1/9/1/1/1), as they were amassed to be presented as legal evidence in the first instance.

PRO C Proceedings of the Court of Chancery (The National Archives, Kew, London)

The departmental records of Birmingham City Council have been given a blanket closure period of 50 years, unless otherwise stated on the catalogue entry.