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The final step in the process is to retrieve the statute referenced in the Nevada statutes from the originating state's statutory compilation. In our example, that's Kerr's California Civil Procedure. Where would you access this?
At the Nevada Supreme Court Law Library, it's possible that we have this publication in print as we are one of the few law libraries in the country that maintain a print archive of all 50 states' statutes, some of which pre-date their admission as a state. Our HIstorical Statute collection is located in the southwest section of the law library. Please check with a Reference Librarian for guidance.
A digital option to research statutes published before copyright (c 1926) is through HeinOnline. HeinOnline's "State Statutes: A Historical Archive" contains old state statutes in PDF format (i.e., a digital facsimile of the actual books). In this case, first locate California's historic statutory codes:
Then it becomes important to make the right selection among all the statutory codes that are available. These early statutory codes are listed from oldest to newest. But what gets complicated is that there is the possibility that there are multiple statutory compilations with the named author (in this case, Kerr)--which one do you choose?
Your first guidepost: The statutory compilation must have been published some time before 1911 (in this example). This should eliminate a few possibilities immediately.
Your second guide post: Look at the table of contents to determine how the code is structured. You have a known citation so quickly look at the table of contents to determine whether a specific topic contains a range of statutes that are on the same topic as yours. For example, if the collection of statutes in the 660s have nothing to do with someone dying after judgment, this is probably not the right statutory compilation. Repeat this process until you identify the correct one.
Following the guidance above, the only viable option is Kerr's Civil Procedure from 1907.
Here is what Kerr's California Civil Procedure (1907) Section 669 looks like:
This statute's history shows that it was originally enacted in 1872. Of more value are the annotations of case citations that follow the text of the statute. These annotations provide references to cases that interpreted this statute at the time it was in effect. Because Nevada's statute takes as its origin this specific California statute, these case annotations offer invaluable insight into how this law was interpreted at the time and would, by extension, conceivably be consistent with how Nevada would also have interpreted the statute's text.