New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Archives

RECORD GROUP 6: LEGAL DEPARTMENT CLAIMS

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The Claims Department reported to the General Attorney's office in the Legal Department. Headed by the General Claim Agent, the Claims Department was divided along state lines with district offices in New Haven, Boston, New York City, and Providence. (This record group contains no claims from the Providence district office.)

The Claims Department was responsible for investigating personal injury and accident claims of passengers and employees, as well as property damage and fire claims. District claims agents, with the assistance of special representatives, were responsible for investigating the claims and for obtaining all relevant information, including claimant interviews, photographs, medical records, etc. Most claims were settled out of court, but in some cases the claims were eventually brought to civil court, either on the federal or state level. This record group contains files from both out of court settlements and actual court cases. These claims have been sampled from a much larger group of records. The various sampling procedures for each series of claims are explained in the series descriptions below. Photographs have been removed from the discarded records and are located in the New Haven Railroad Photographs Collection. Note that additional claims are located in Series VIII of the ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT record group .

The LEGAL DEPARTMENT CLAIMS are divided into three series:

I PERSONAL INJURY ACCIDENT OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENTS
II PERSONAL INJURY ACCIDENT COURT CASES
III FIRE AND LIVESTOCK CLAIMS

Series I, PERSONAL INJURY ACCIDENT OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENTS, 1944-70, contains completed claim report forms, correspondence, newspaper clippings and photographs. The series is further divided into three subseries: New Haven District, 1944-70, Boston District, 1964-68, and New England Transportation Company, 1944-60. Within each series, the files are arranged numerically by claim file number; the file numbers listed are not inclusive numbers due to the sampling procedures applied to the records.

New Haven District subseries originally included over 400 linear feet of files. After appraisal it was decided to retain only a 5% representative sample. The first and last box and every 22nd box in between were retained, representing the types of claims files maintained by the company during this 26-year period. The sample is not statistically reliable. The Boston District files originally consisted of 67 linear feet of records, in 27 transfile boxes; one inch of files was retained from each box. New England Transportation Company claim records originally included 20 linear feet and were sampled as follows: 3 inches of files were taken from the first and last boxes and from every 5th box in between.

Series II, PERSONAL INJURY ACCIDENT COURT CASES, 1960-75, contains records of cases heard in Federal District Court, and State Supreme and Superior Courts. The records include completed claims forms, correspondence, hearing transcripts, newspaper clippings and photographs. Series II is divided into three subseries: Connecticut Court Cases, 1960-75, Boston Court Cases, 1960-75, and New York Court Cases, 1960-75.

Series II was sampled using a "fat file" sampling method in which files one inch thick or more were retained. The New York Court Cases originally contained nine linear feet and was reduced to six linear feet. The Connecticut Court Cases originally contained 14 linear feet and was reduced to six linear feet. The Boston Court Cases contained 50 linear feet and was reduced to 21 linear feet.

Series III, FIRE and LIVESTOCK CLAIMS, 1915-45, contains claims for damages from fires and to livestock caused by locomotives. All the claims in this series were settled out of court. The record types in this series include completed claims forms, correspondence, and photographs. This subseries was retained intact, with no sampling.