A FEDERAL SUIT AT LAW BY W. S. SIMKINS PROFESSOR OF LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS ROCHESTER, N. Y. THE LAWYERS CO-OPERATIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1912 PREFACE. THE United States courts are not subordinate to the State courts; they move in an independent judicial system, and though both the State and Federal courts have concurrent jurisdiction in dealing with property rights of the citizens in the different States, yet they derive their powers from different sources. At a very early period it became evident that, in administering the laws of the several States, that there should be conformity in procedure as well as in administering the State rules of property. With the purpose, then, of bringing about general uniformity of procedure in suits at law, and to confer upon litigants in the Federal courts the remedies provided by the various States for their own citizens, Congress passed in 1872 section 914 of the United States Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 684), known as the "conformity act," and in words as follows: "The practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding in civil causes, other than equity and admiralty causes, in the circuit and district courts, shall conform, as near as may be, to the practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding existing at the time in like causes in courts of record of the State within which such circuit or district courts are held, any rule of court to the contrary notwithstanding." Very soon after the passage of the act, it was construed by the Supreme Court of the United States to be directory, without any mandatory feature except perhaps that under the act the Federal courts should adhere to the local system designated to produce an issue of law or fact; but even then they will not follow any technical requirements of form, if in the opinion of the judge it would embarrass the administration of justice by doing so. The words "as near as may be" were held to mean not as near as may be possible, |