MINNESOTA. SUPREME COURT:

Peter Stephen Popovich, a Minnesota lawyer and jurist, was born in November 1920 at Crosby, Minnesota. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1942, and his LLB degree from the St. Paul College of Law in 1947. Popovich was a partner in the St. Paul law firms of Peterson & Popovich (1947-1952, 1960-ca. 1974), Peterson, Popovich & Marsden (1952-1960), and Peterson, Popovich, Knutson & Flynn (ca. 1975-ca. 1983). He was a representative from St. Paul in the Minnesota House from 1953 until 1963.

Peter Popovich served as chief judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals (1983-1987), and in November 1987 became an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. On February 1, 1989 he succeeded Douglas K. Amdahl as chief justice, in which capacity he served until reaching mandatory retirement age in November 1990.

Popovich married Dorothy Lee in 1944, with whom he had four children. In 1985 Popovich married Gail Prince Javorina.

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Files kept by Justice Popovich during his tenure on the Minnesota Supreme Court. The materials concern the operation and administration of the Supreme Court, the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and the Minnesota district court system. Included are correspondence and memoranda, subject files, minutes of meetings, statistical data, reports, newspaper clippings, and miscellany such as hearing transcripts and photocopies of legal briefs.

Correspondence concerns cases, legislation, and administrative and operational matters, including complaints about lawyers, judges, and court decisions. There are invitations to meetings, dinners, conferences, and speaking engagements. Correspondents include other members of the judiciary, state legislators, law school officials, bar associations, lawyers, and litigants.

There are minutes of meetings of Supreme and Appeals court judges, and of the Conference of [Minnesota district court] Chief Judges; and statistics on the processing and disposition of cases in the state's courts. There is information about the sunset (abolition) and transfer of district court judgeships, the Minnesota Judicial Center building in St. Paul, and about such issues as gender fairness in the courts, state financing of trial courts, and the adoption of uniform rules in the district courts. A file on legislation includes information about the Vice Lords street gang in Minneapolis.

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These records are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item, folder title, and section here]. Minnesota Supreme Court. Files of Chief Justice Peter S. Popovich. Minnesota Historical Society. State Archives.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number(s): 993-130

Processing Information:

Processed by: David B. Peterson, March 1994.

Catalog ID No.: 0900037144 RLIN ID No.: MNHV94-A640

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Correspondence includes invitations to meetings, dinners, conferences, and speaking engagements. Some of it has to do with cases tried before the Supreme Court or in lower courts. There are letters from disappointed litigants complaining about court decisions or alleging misconduct by judges and attorney malpractice, particularly with regard to divorce cases and child custody issues. Some writers ask Popovich for legal advice, or request that he intercede on their behalf in various situations. Other letters are from individuals interested in working as law clerks or interns. Some correspondence pertains to legislative matters.

Correspondents include Popovich, Justice Amdahl, State Court Administrator Sue K. Dosal, and various associate justices of the Supreme Court; district court judges and personnel; legislators and state officials; attorneys; disappointed litigants; law school officials; the American and Minnesota State bar associations; and various other professional organizations and societies. Many of the letters are from friends and acquaintances or long-time colleagues, and are of a relatively familiar and personal nature.

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Subject files include biographical information about Popovich, floor plans and other information about the Minnesota Judicial Center building, information about lawyers' professional organizations and societies, and statistical data pertaining to the trial, appellate, and Supreme courts. There is information about Popovich's participation in the St. Paul Winter Carnival (1988-1989), about computer and information management systems being purchased for or considered by the Court, and a list of Popovich's speaking engagements (1984-1987).

Material relating to the Court of Appeals includes statistical data, photocopies of Chief Judge D. D. Wozniak's correspondence and memoranda, and minutes of judges' meetings. A file about legislation includes trial court caseload statistics (1988), correspondence with the leadership of the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives, and information about witness intimidation by the Vice Lords street gang in Minneapolis (1989). There is a folder of newspaper obituaries of Minnesota judges, lawyers, lawmakers, public officials, Iron Rangers, and others who apparently were friends of Justice Popovich. There are also minutes, correspondence, and other material related to the Conference of Chief Judges (Minnesota district court judges).

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Judicial district files include statistical and other information about the functioning of the Minnesota district court system, and efforts to expedite the flow of cases through them; the shifting of financing for trial court operations from counties and local taxpayers to the State of Minnesota; and the sunset (abolition) and transfer of district court judgeships.

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Agendas and minutes of meetings of the Supreme Court justices.

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Files with information about the work of commissions, committees, and task forces concerned with such issues as gender fairness in the courts, state financing of trial courts, and the adoption of uniform local rules in the district courts.

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Popovich's personal papers are in the Minnesota Historical Society's manuscript collections.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Court administration -- Minnesota.

Court rules -- Minnesota.

Courts -- Minnesota -- Officials and employees.

Minnesota Judicial Center (Saint Paul, Minnesota).

Judges -- Minnesota.

Lawyers -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Amdahl, Douglas K. (Douglas Kenneth), 1919-.

Popovich, Peter S. 1920-.

Wozniak, D. D. (Daniel Donald), 1922-.

Organizations:

American Bar Association.

Conference of Chief Judges (Minnesota).

Hamline University. School of Law.

Minnesota State Bar Association.

Minnesota. Court of Appeals.

Vice Lords (Organization).

William Mitchell College of Law.

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