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as a bailee for hire can sue for and recover the full value of packages abstracted from the mails.38

The United States may sue to enjoin acts in pursuance of a conspiracy to obstruct Interstate Commerce 30 and to cause a scarcity of food in violation of war legislation.40

In the suit brought by the State of Florida against the State of Georgia to settle the boundary between them, the AttorneyGeneral of the United States was permitted to file an information praying "that he be permitted to appear in said case, and be heard in behalf of the United States, in such time and form as the court shall order;" and although permission for him to take testimony in the name of Florida with its consent was refused, it was "ordered that the Attorney-General have leave to adduce evidence, whether written or parol, and to examine witnesses and file their depositions in order to establish the boundary claimed by the United States."' 41

Informations have been filed in equity in the courts of some of the individual states. These have been usually brought to abate public nuisances, 42 and to enjoin acts by corporations, which were ultra vires, and which tended to be a public injury; 43 but one was allowed to protect a charity, which had no person directly interested qualified to defend its rights.44 It has been held: that a State Attorney-General cannot maintain a suit to enjoin insurance companies from carrying out an agreement regulating their rates in restraint of trade.45 A State chancellor refused to entertain an information filed in the name of the State Attorney-General on the relation of an alleged imbecile to set aside a conveyance; but he allowed the paper to

38 U. S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. U. S., C. C. A., 246 Fed. 433. See supra, $$ 5, 5a.

-39 Re Debs, 158 U. S. 564, 39 L. ed. 1092.

40 U. S. v. Hayes, D. C. (Ind.) Nov. 1919.

41 Florida v. Georgia, 17 How. 478, 480, 523, 15 L. ed. 181, 195.

42 Attorney-General v. Jamaica P. Aq. Co., 133 Mass. 361; AttorneyGeneral v. Hare, 50 Mich. 447; At

torney-General v. Delaware & B. B. R. Co., 27 N. J. Eq. 1; s. c., 27 N. J. Eq. 631.

48 Attorney-General v. Central R. R., 50 N. J. Eq. 52, 24 Atl. 964, 17 L.R.A. 97; Attorney-General v. Am. Tobacco Co., 55 N. J. Eq. 352, 356, 3 Atl. 971, 977.

44 Attorney-General v. Butler, 123 Mass. 306.

45 McCarter v. Fireman's Ins. Co., 70 N. J. Eq. 291, 61 Atl. 705.

be converted by amendment into a bill filed by the next friend of the alleged imbecile.46

A State sues in a court of the United States by a bill in equity in its own name.47

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"When the United States comes into a court of equity as a suitor it is subject to the defenses peculiar to that court. It is subject to the rules of court,19 including those regulatin g the time of filing pleadings.50

Such an information or bill should be filed in the name of the United States, not in the name of one of its law officers.51 If a bill be filed to impeach a patent or other grant by the United States and be not brought by the Attorney-General, or some other officer authorized by statute so to do, it should contain an allegation that the Attorney-General has "given such order for its institution as will make him officially responsible for it, and show his control over the cause. The signature of the Attorney-General subscribed to the bill is sufficient to show his authority for filing it.53 Where the Attorney-General is disqualified, the bill may be signed by the Solicitor-General and filed in his discretion.5 54

152

§ 132. Definition and classification of bills. The usual course, and the only one open to a private citizen, is the filing of a bill. The word "bill" is derived from the Latin libellus; and such a pleading is sometimes called an English bill; because at the time when pleadings at common law were in Law Latin or Law French, it was as now written in the English language.1 A bill is a petition addressed to the judges of a court of equity, containing a statement of the facts which in the plaintiff's opin

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ion give him a right to sue, and concluding with a prayer for the relief to which he deems himself entitled.

Quis, quid, coram quo, quo jure petitur, et a quo.

Recte compositus quisque libellus habet.2

Bills are divided by the books into three classes; original bills, bills not original, and bills in the nature of original bills. A fourth class, which may be termed original bills in the nature of bills not original, is recognized by the Federal courts. Original bills are those which relate to some matter not before litigated in the court of equity by the same parties standing in the same interests. Bills not original are those, which relate to some matter already litigated in the court of equity by the same parties, or their representatives, and which are either an addition to or a continuance of an original bill, or both.3 Bills in the nature of original bills are those which serve to bring before the court the proceedings and decree in a former suit, for the purpose of either obtaining the benefit of the same or procuring the reversal of the decision made therein. Original bills in the nature of bills not original are those having all the characteristics of original bills, except that the Federal courts will take jurisdiction of them without regard to the citizenship or the parties, or the other limitations of the original Federal jurisdiction.5 Original bills are of two kinds: those which pray relief, and those which do not pray relief. Original bills which pray relief are said to belong to three classes: bills which pray the decree of the court concerning some right claimed by the plaintiff in opposition to some right claimed by the defendant, bills of interpleader, and bills of certiorari. Original bills not praying relief are of two kinds: bills of perpetuate the testimony of witnesses, and bills of discovery. Bills not original are bills of revivor, supplemental bills and bills of revivor and supplement. Bills in the nature of original bills are bills in the nature of sup-. plemental bills, bills in the nature of bills of revivor, cross-bills,

2 Com. Dig., Chancery, E. 2.

3 Quoted with approval in AngloFlorida Phosphate Co. v. McKibben, C. C. A., 65 Fed. 529, 530, 531.

4 Mitford's Pl., ch. 1, § 2; Story's Eq. Pl., § 16.

5 Minnesota Co. v. St. Paul Co.,

2 Wall. 609, 17 L. ed. 886; Krippendorf v. Hyde, 110 U. S. 276, 28 L ed. 145; Pacific R. Co. of Mo. v. Mo. Pac. Ry. Co., 111 U. S. 505, 28 L. ed. 498; Continental Tr. Co. v. Toledo, St. L. & K. C. R. Co., 82 Fed. 642; supra, § 51.

bills of review, bills impeaching decrees upon the ground of fraud, bills to suspend the operation of decrees on special circumstances or to avoid them on the ground of matter subsequent, and bills partaking of the qualities of some one or more of these bills. If the court has jurisdiction of an original bill, it will take jurisdiction of bills not original, and bills in the nature of original bills, growing out of the first suit, without regard to the citizenship of the parties thereto. And in certain other cases it will take jurisdiction of bills otherwise original which are so intimately connected with matters before the Federal court that it is in the interest of convenience and justice to have the n disposed of before the same tribunal. These may be named original bills in the nature of bills not original. They are usually called ancillary bills. Such is a bill to obtain a judicial construction of previous decrees; 10 a bill to obtain a determination of the rights of a claimant to a fund in the hands of a Federal marshal; 11 a bill to stay proceedings at law; 12 and a bill to set aside a decree.18 The peculiarities in the form and the procedure upon original bills not praying relief, bills not original, and bills in the nature of original bills, will be dis cussed in the latter part of this work. In this chapter, the form of original bills praying relief and, in the chapters immediately succeeding, the proceedings upon them, will be ex plained, beginning with the ordinary kind,-bills which seek relief concerning some right claimed by the plaintiff in opposition to one claimed by the defendant.

§ 133. Frame of a bill in equity. Formerly, bills usually consisted of nine parts: the direction or address, the intro

6 Mitford's Pl., ch. 1, § 2; Story's Eq. Pl., 88 16-24

7 Clarke v. Mathewson, 12 Pet. 164, 9 L. ed. 1041; Jones v. Andrews, 10 Wall. 327, 333, 19 L. ed. 935, 937; Pacific R. Co. of Mo. v. Mo. Pac. Ry. Co., 111 U. S. 505, 28 L. ed. 498. See § 53.

8 Minnesota Co. v. St. Paul Co.,

2 Wall. 609, 17 L. ed. 886.

9 Supra, § 51.

10 Minnesota Co. v. St. Paul Co., 2 Wall. 609, 17 L. ed. 886.

11 Krippendorf v. Hyde, 110 T. S. 276; Freeman v. Howe, 24 How. 450, 16 L. ed. 749.

12 Logan v. Patrick, 5 Craneh, 288, 3 L. ed. 103; Dunn v. Clarke, 8 Pet. 1, 8 L. ed. 845; Jones v. An drews, 10 Wall. 327, 333, 19 L. ed. 935, 937; Dunlap v. Stetson, 4 Mason, 349.

18 Pacific R. Co. of Mo. v. Mo. L. Pac. Ry. Co., 111 U. S. 505, 28 ed. 498.

duction, the premises or stating part, the common-confederacy clause, the charging part, the jurisdiction clause, the interrogating part, the prayer of relief, and the prayer of process. Of these, however, the common confederacy clause, alleging that the defendant or defendants are combining and confederating with some persons to the plaintiff unknown, whose names when discovered he prays leave to insert as defendants, which owed its origin to an idea that otherwise the bill could not be amended so as to add new defendants, and its retention to the practice of taxing costs according to the length of the documents filed; the charging part, alleging the defense which it anticipated would be made by the defendant, and the reply which the plaintiff intended to make thereto; and the jurisdiction clause, alleging that the acts of the defendant which were complained of were contrary to equity, and that the plaintiff was without any remedy at law: were not even then considered necessary by the best authorities, and by the equity rules of 1842 they were expressly declared superfluous.3

2

The equity rules promulgated in 1912 have obviated the necessity of the address, the interrogating part 5 and the prayer

§ 133. 1 Mitford's Pl., ch. 1, § 3; Story's Eq. Pl., §§ 26-48.

2 Mitford's Pl., ch. 1, §3; Langdell's Eq. Pl., § 55; Story's Eq. Pl., §§ 29, 32, 33, 34; Comstock v. Herron, 45 Fed. 660.

3 Rule 21 of 1842.

4 Eq. Rule 25. By the Equity Rules of 1842. 20. Every bill in the introductory part thereof, shall contain the names, places of abode, and citizenship of all the parties, plaintiffs and defendants, by and against whom the bill is brought. The form, in substance, shall be as follows: To the judges of the cir cuit court of the United States for the district of --: A. B., of and a citizen of the State of brings this his bill against C. D., of and a citizen of the State of and E. F., of and a citiAnd there.

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zen of the State of --.
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upon, your orator complains and says that,' etc."

5 The old form was as follows: "To the end, therefore, that the said A. B. and the rest of the confederates, when discovered, may, upon their several and respective corporate oaths, full, true, direct, and perfect answer make to all and singular the matters herein before stated and charged, as fully and particularly as if the same were hereinafter repeated, and they thereunto distinctly interrogated; and that not only to the best of their respective knowledge and remembrance, but also as to the best of their several and respective information, hearsay and belief; and more especially that they may answer and set forth whether, etc.; or they may set forth and discover whether they do not know, have

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