The Montana Code Commission was created on April 30, 1945 by order of the Supreme Court of the State of Montana in accordance with House Bill 320 of the Twenty-Ninth Legislative Assembly of the State of Montana in order to revise the Codes of Montana which were to be known as the Revised Codes of Montana, 1947. The commission consisted of the existing Code Commissioner, the Honorable I.W. Choate, and an appointed Advisory committee. This advisory committee consisted of the Honorable Donovan Worden, the Honorable Lew L. Callaway, and the Honorable M.J. Lamb, all members of the Bar of the State of Montana. These men were appointed to counsel, assist, and advice Choate in the preparation of the revision of the Codes of Montana. In March 1946, the Honorable H.A. Simmons of Red Lodge was appointed to the committee to fill the vacancy left by the death of M.J. Lamb.
On March 22, 1947, Wesley W. Wertz was appointed Code Commissioner. There is no documentation for the reason why there was this change in leadership. However, when Wertz was appointed commissioner, the staff of the former commissioner left with him, and all activity had ceased. Six months after assuming the office of Code Commissioner, Wertz submitted a report to the Supreme Court regarding the status of the revision. The revision was completed at the 1947 Revised Codes of Montana were adopted by the Thirtieth Legislative Assembly.
These records of the Montana Code Commission (1944-1949) include the alphabetized correspondence of code commissioners Wertz, and Choate, as appointed by the Supreme Court of Montana, court documents (1945-1946) and an analysis of status of work report (1947). The records mainly include correspondence between the commissioners and lawyers, judges, and publishers.
The collection is organized into three series; Correspondence, Court Papers, and Reports. The series are arranged in alphabetical order.
Collection is open for research.
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Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.
Acquisition information available upon request.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the Montana Historical Society Archives catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search under these terms.