2010 Pennsylvania Code
Title 42 - JUDICIARY AND JUDICIAL PROCEDURE
Chapter 43 - Dockets, Indices and Other Records
4327 - Transfer of custody to local museum upon application.

     § 4327.  Transfer of custody to local museum upon application.
        (a)  General rule.--Any nonprofit public, quasi-public, or
     private association or corporation situated within the county
     where the historical documents are filed, which maintains a
     museum, building or facilities used for the exhibit of
     historical writings, and which shall have adequate facilities
     for the display and preservation of such documents, may petition
     the court of common pleas of the judicial district embracing the
     county wherein such document or documents are filed for the
     transfer of the custody of such documents for the purpose of
     their public display. Upon the filing of any petition, the court
     shall fix a time for a hearing, and prescribe such notice to be
     given as shall acquaint similar organizations with the filing of
     the petition. Any other association or corporation meeting the
     requirements of this subsection may intervene in the proceedings
     with the same effect as if it had been the original petitioner,
     and the court, after hearing, may award custody of any
     historical document or documents to any of the petitioners for
     such term and upon such conditions as the court shall prescribe.
        (b)  Permanent copy substituted for original.--Upon the
     granting of a petition transferring custody of any historical
     documents, the officer from whose custody it was removed shall
     substitute in his files a certified permanent copy of such
     document, which shall be of the same force and effect as the
     original document.
        (c)  Petition for return of document.--The appropriate county
     officer may at any time, without cause, petition the court for
     the return of any historical document, the custody of which had
     been previously transferred to any person pursuant to subsection
     (a).
        (d)  Order for return on motion of court.--The court, after
     having taken jurisdiction of the transfer of any historical
     document, may, without cause, and upon its own motion, order the
     person having such temporary custody to return such document to
     the appropriate office wherein it had been originally filed.
        (e)  Definition.--As used in this section "historical
     document" means any document formerly belonging to a decedent or
     any other person, which document is more than 50 years old and
     which is in the custody of a register of wills, the recorder of
     deeds, the clerk of any court or the prothonotary, except
     documents relating to adoption, divorce or custody.