57635

ORDER IN REFERENCE TO APPEALS FROM COURT of CLAIMS.......

EQUITY RULES..

ADMIRALTY RULES....

GENERAL ORDERS IN BANKRUPTCY.

395

...... 402

404

438

459

SPECIAL NOTICE.

AN ACT to fix the time for holding the annual session of the Supreme
Court of the United States, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That
from and after the passage of this act the annual session of
the Supreme Court of the United States shall commence
on the second Monday of October in each year, and all
actions, suits, appeals, recognizances, processes, writs, and
proceedings whatever, pending or which may be pending
in said court, or returnable thereto, shall have day therein,
and be heard, tried, proceeded with, and decided, in like
manner as if the time of holding said sessions had not been
hereby altered.

Approved, January 24, 1873.

AN ACT

ΤΟ

FURTHER THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever, in any suit or proceeding in a circuit court of the United States, being held by a justice of the Supreme Court and the circuit judge or a district judge, or by the circuit judge and a district judge, there shall occur any difference of opinion between the judges as to any matter or thing to be decided, ruled, or ordered by the court, the opinion of the presiding justice or the presiding judge shall prevail, and be considered the opinion of the court for the time being; but when a final judgment, decree, or order in such suit or proceeding shall be entered, if said judges shall certify, as it shall be their duty to do if such be the fact, that they differed in opinion as to any question which, under the act of Congress of April twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and two, might have been reviewed by the Supreme Court on certificate of difference of opinion, then either party may remove said final judgment, decree, or order to the Supreme Court, on writ of error or appeal, according to the nature of the case, and subject to the provisions of law applicable to other writs of error or appeals in regard to bail and supersedeas.

SEC. 2. That no judgment, decree, or order of a circuit or district court of the United States, in any civil action at law or in equity, rendered after this act shall take effect, shall be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States, on writ of error or appeal, unless the writ of error be sued out, or the appeal be taken, within two years after the

entry of such judgment, decree, or order; and no judgment, decree, or order of a district court, rendered after this act shall take effect shall be reviewed by a circuit court of the United States upon like process or appeal, unless the process be sued out, or the appeal, be taken, within one year after the entry of the judgment, decree, or order sought to be reviewed: Provided, That where a party entitled to prosecute a writ of error or to take an appeal is an infant, or non compos mentis, or imprisoned, such writ of error may be prosecuted, or such appeal may be taken, within the periods above designated after the entry of the judgment, decree, or order, exclusive of the term of such disability. The appellate court may affirm, modify, or reverse the judgment, decree, or order brought before it for review, or may direct such judgment, decree, or order to be rendered, or such further proceedings to be had by the inferior court as the justice of the case may require.

SEC. 3. That the Supreme Court may at any time in its discretion, and upon such terms as it may deem just, and where the defect has not injured and the amendment will not prejudice the defendant in error, allow an amendment of a writ of error, when there is a mistake in the teste of the writ, or a seal to the writ is wanting, or when the writ is made returnable on a day other than the day of the commencement of the term next ensuing the issue of the writ, or when the statement of the title of the action or parties thereto in the writ is defective, if the defect can be remedied by reference to the accompanying record, and in all other particulars of form where the defect has not prejudiced, and the amendment will not injure, the defendant in error; and the circuit and district courts of the United States shall possess the like power of amendment of all process returnable to or before them.

SEC. 4. That a bill of exceptions hereafter allowed in any cause shall be deemed sufficiently authenticated if signed by the judge of the court in which the cause was tried, or by the presiding judge thereof, if more than one judge sat on the trial of the cause, without any seal of court or judge