Pennsylvania Statutes Title 16 P.S. Counties § 3470. Authority to destroy valueless records; approval of courts

(a) Whenever any officer of the county shall have an accumulation of records or other papers in his office which such officer shall deem valueless, he may destroy and dispose of the same, provided he shall have first obtained the approval of the court of common pleas, or of the orphans' court of the county in the case of the office of register of wills or clerk of the orphans' court.

(b) In any such case, the court of common pleas or the orphans' court, as the case may be, may prescribe such conditions, including the duty on such officer and the county commissioners to have copied and replaced any such records or papers by such mechanical process as is authorized by law, as such court shall deem advisable.

(c) The provisions of this section shall not apply to the recorder of deeds of the county, except as to written instruments, documents or papers lodged for record and recorded and which were thereupon returnable to the persons entitled thereto, when such persons have failed to call for the same after a period of one year from the time they were ready for delivery and return.