THE FEDERAL REPORTER. VOLUME 50. CASES ARGUED AND DETERMINED IN THE CIRCUIT COURTS OF APPEALS AND CIRCUIT PERMANENT EDITION MAY-AUGUST, 1892. ST. PAUL: 1892. AMENDMENTS TO RULES. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. Ordered, that all parts of rule 67 of the rules of practice for the courts of equity of the United States, as now existing, be, and the same are hereby, superseded, and the following rule is promulgated as such rule 67: 67. After the cause is at issue, commissions to take testimony may be taken out in vacation as well as in term, jointly by both parties, or severally by either party, upon interrogatories filed by the party taking out the same in the clerk's office, ten days' notice thereof being given to the adverse party to file cross interrogatories before the issuing of the commission; and, if no cross interrogatories are filed at the expiration of the time, the commission may issue ex parte. In all cases the commissioner or commissioners may be named by the court or by a judge thereof; and the presiding judge of the court exercising jurisdiction may, either in term time or in vacation, vest in the clerk of the court general power to name commissioners to take testimony. Either party may give notice to the other that he desires the evidence to be adduced in the cause to be taken orally, and thereupon all the witnesses to be examined shall be examined before one of the examiners of the court, or before an examiner to be specially appointed by the court. The examiner, if he so request, shall be furnished with a copy of the pleadings. Such examination shall take place in the presence of the parties or their agents, by their counsel or solicitors, and the witnesses shall be subject to cross-examination and re-examination, all of which shall be conducted as near as may be in the mode now used in common-law courts. The depositions taken upon such oral examination shall be reduced to writing by the examiner, in the form of question put and answer given: provided, that by consent of parties the examiner may take down the testimony of any witness in the form of narrative. At the request of either party, with reasonable notice, the deposition of any witness shall, under the direction of the examiner, be taken down either by a skillful stenographer or by a skillful typewriter, as the examiner may elect, and, when taken stenographically, shall be put into typewriting or other writing: provided, that such stenographer or typewriter has been appointed by the court, or is approved by both parties. The testmony of each witness, after such reduction to writing, shall be read over to him, and signed by him in the presence of the examiner and of such of the parties or counsel as may attend: provided that, if the witness shall refuse to sign his deposition so taken, then the examiner shall sign the same, stating upon the record the reasons, if any, assigned by the witness for such refusal. The examiner may, upon all examinations, state any special matters to the court as he shall think fit; and any question or questions which may be objected to shall be noted by the examiner upon the deposition, but he shall not have power to decide on the competency, materiality, or relevancy of the questions; and the court shall have power to deal with the costs of incompetent, immaterial, or irrelevant depositions, or parts of them, as may be just. In case of refusal of witnesses to attend, to be sworn, or to answer any question put by the examiner, or by ou sel or solicitor, the same practice shall be adopted as is now practiced with respect to witnesses to be produced on examination before an examiner of said court on written interrogatories. Notice shall be given by the respective counsel or solicitors to the opposite counsel or solicitors or parties of the time and place of the examination, for such reasonable time as the examiner may fix by order in each cause. When the examination of witnesses before the examiner is concluded, the original depositions, authenticated by the signature of the examiner, shall be transmitted by him to the clerk of the court, to be there filed of record, in the same mode as prescribed in section 865 of the Revised Statutes. Testimony may be taken on commission in the usual way, by written interrogatories and cross interrogatories, on motion to the court in term time, or to a judge in vacation, for special reasons, satisfactory to the court or judge. Where the evidence to be adduced in a cause is to be taken orally, as before provided, the court may, on motion of either party, assign a time within which the complainant shall take his evidence in support of the bill, and a time thereafter within which the defendant shall take his evidence in defense, and a time thereafter within which the complainant shall take his evidence in reply; and no further evidence shall be taken in the cause, unless by agreement of the parties, or by leave of court first obtained, on motion for cause shown. The expense of the taking down of depositions by a stenographer and of putting them into typewriting or other writing shall be paid in the first instance by the party calling the witness, and shall be imposed by the court, as part of the costs, upon such party as the court shall adjudge should ultimately bear them. Promulgated May 2, 1892. |