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ON

FEDERAL PRACTICE

CIVIL AND CRIMINAL

INCLUDING

PRACTICE IN BANKRUPTCY, ADMIRALTY, PATENT CASES,
FORECLOSURE OF RAILWAY MORTGAGES, SUITS
UPON CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES,
PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE INTERSTATE

COMMERCE COMMISSION AND THE
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION,

EQUITY PLEADING AND PRACTICE,
RECEIVERS AND INJUNCTIONS

IN THE STATE COURTS

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BY

ROGER FOSTER

OF THE NEW YORK BAR

AUTHOR OF COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES,
TREATISES ON THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY ACTS OF 1875 AND 1887. THE
FEDERAL INCOME TAX OF 1894, THE FEDERAL INCOME TAX OF 1913
AND 1914, LIBERTY OF CONTRACT, ATTACHMENT, REMOVAL OF
CAUSES, TRIAL BY NEWSPAPER, &C., FORMERLY LEC-
TURER ON FEDERAL JURISPRUDENCE AT THE
LAW SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY,

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PREFACE

When this work was begun, thirty-seven years ago, its design was a treatise upon Federal Equity Practice alone. The subject was chosen because this was then territory unknown to most members of the bar, including the author. During the seven years that passed before the completion of the first edition in one volume, he was convinced of the necessity of including chapters upon practice at common law and error and appeal. The kind reception given to the book by the bench and bar has induced him in the succeeding editions to include a description of the jurisdiction and practice of the courts of the United States in other branches of the law and also of the practice and jurisdiction of the United States courts of Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines, of the Consular Courts, the United States Court of China, the courts of the District of Columbia, Alaska and the Canal Zone, and in the review of the decisions of the courts of the Virgin Islands.

Since the last edition the jurisdiction and practice of the Supreme Court in reviewing the decisions of the State courts have been revolutionized. The distinctions between writs of error and appeals have been to a large extent abolished. The time within which a case can be brought up for review has been shortened. The war legislation, the Federal control of railroads and telegraph lines, the questions arising upon their return to their owners, the broadened exercise of the power of Congress to regulate Interstate Commerce, the increase of Federal taxation and the Prohibition Amendment, have greatly extended the field of Federal jurisdiction, and an increase in the size of the book was thus compelled.

The book has been entirely re-written, and to some extent rearranged. A large number of sections have been added. Much new matter has been inserted; especially upon the subjects of railroad reorganizations, of accountings for profits and the as

iii

sessment of damages in patent, copyright, and trade-mark cases, of injunctions against strikers and upon the whole subject of injunctions. The more important cases, in which bills in equity may be filed in the Federal courts, and those in which injunctions are granted to protect rights arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, have been classified, described and explained. The great powers vested in the Federal Trade Commission upon its creation and in the Interstate Commerce Commission from time to time since the latter came into being, especially during the year 1920, have made it seem necessary to explain for the benefit of the profession the jurisdiction of those commissions and the practice before them.

The increased demand of the bar for legal forms has caused the addition of a large number, which have been used in actual litigation in criminal as well as civil cases. All this has necessitated the enlargement of the book into four volumes.

The author has spared no pains in making the work complete. Notwithstanding the demands of an exacting profession he has worked upon the book every week that he was at his office for the last thirty years, and he believes that he has examined every reported case that has been decided by a court of the United States. He will, however, welcome any suggestions as to errors or omissions by correcting which he can make it more useful to the bar. Although he has added references to the more important of the later cases that have appeared while the book was passing through the press, he has not included all that have been reported since the two hundred and forty-fifth volume of the reports of the Supreme Court of the United States and the two hundred and fifty-fifth volume of the Federal Reporter.

The description of the practice in equity as it existed before the promulgation of the new rules has been retained, because these cannot be adequately understood without the knowledge of what preceded them and also in order to make the book useful to lawyers in the States which still retain the distinction between the practice at common law and that in equity. He believes that the book now contains everything except the local rules and statutes that is needed by a practitioner in the courts of equity in the states where the practice in equity still differs from that at common law such as Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, as well as in all the courts of the United States and the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia; besides the treatment of a number of topics, such as Parties, Service of Process by Publication, Multifariousness, Motions and Orders, Injunctions, Receivers, Contempts, and others equally important under Code practice and the practice in all State courts.

When he has completed his Commentaries upon the Constitution of the United States, of which one volume has been already published, the author hopes that he will have furnished the bar with a complete guide to the whole field of Federal Jurisprudence.

New York, August 14th, 1920.

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