Federal Equity Procedure, Vol. 1 of 2 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Federal Equity Procedure, Vol. 1 of 2This work has been written in response to a demand for a treatise containing a full and systematic statement of the procedure in suits in equity in the circuit courts of the United States. During the last twenty-five years, the really great and important property litigation in this country has been chiefly in suits in equity in the federal courts, and such litigation is likely to increase with the progress of the country. The procedure in such suits is the same in all the states of the Union, not controlled by procedure in the state courts, but materially variant from it; and the busy lawyer, practicing in both state and federal courts, has often felt the need of a work furnishing readily a complete and comprehensive statement of the rules of procedure in suits in federal equity. The aim of the author has been to state fully the procedure in the prosecution and defense of a suit in federal equity, with all its incidents and minor details, from the preparation and filing of the bill to and including the final decree, and appeal and appellate procedure. The successive steps in the progress of the suit, and the various rules of procedure applicable to them, have been stated in their due order and sequence. The book has been written throughout upon the principle laid down in United States equity rule ninety. Wherever any question of procedure is covered by a federal statute or an equity rule promulgated by the supreme court, such statute or rule is quoted or cited as conclusive of the question. When there is no such statute or rule of court, the English chancery procedure as it existed in 1842, when the United States equity rules were adopted, is stated. Mitfords Equity Pleading, cited as Redesdale, the second edition of Smiths Chancery Practice, and the first London edition of Daniells Chancery Pleading and Practice are cited and frequently quoted, as stating the English chancery procedure adopted in the fede...