(a) When the record of any case or matter in any court of the United States to which the United States is a party, is lost or destroyed, a certified copy of any official paper of a United States attorney, United States marshal or clerk or other certifying or recording officer of any such court, made pursuant to law, on file in any department or agency of the United States and relating to such case or matter, shall, on being filed in the court to which it relates, have the same effect as an original paper filed in such court. If the copy so filed discloses the date and amount of a judgment or decree and the names of the parties thereto, the court may enforce the judgment or decree as though the original record had not been lost or destroyed.
(b) Whenever the United States is interested in any lost or destroyed records or files of a court of the United States, the clerk of such court and the United States attorney for the district shall take the steps necessary to restore such records or files, under the direction of the judges of such court.
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §§685, 686 (R.S. §§903, 904; Jan. 31, 1879, ch. 39, §§2, 3, 20 Stat. 277).
A provision of section 686 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., relating to allowances to clerks and United States attorneys for their services, and disbursements incidental to restoring lost records under such section was deleted as obsolete, in view of sections 508, 509, and 604 of this title, placing such officers on a salary basis and providing for their expenses.
Words "And in all cases where any of the files, papers, or records of any court of the United States have been or shall be lost or destroyed, the files, records and papers which, pursuant to law, may have been or may be restored or supplied in place of such records, files, and papers, shall have the same force and effect, to all intents and purposes, as the originals thereof would have been entitled to," at the end of section 685 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., were omitted as fully covered by the remainder of this section and by section 1734 of this title.
Words "or agency of the United States" were substituted for "of the Government" so as to eliminate any possible ambiguity as to the scope of this section. See definitive section 451 of this title.
The phrase "so far as the judges of such courts respectively shall deem it essential to the interests of the United States that such records and files be restored or supplied," was omitted as unnecessary.
Changes were made in phraseology.
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