Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/408

 d&6 FEDERAL REPORTER. �raiit and justify ihe court in quashing the service of process, as shown by the return of the sheriff of Lancaster county ? �Exceptions were taken by plaintiffs to the form of the de- fendant's plea, for the reason, as stated, that such a plea is unknown to the code of practice of this state. Strictly speak- ing, this may be true, but courts of justice usually look more to substance than to form when the ends of justice will thereby be subserved ; and, while this may be in form a plea in abatement, we may nevertheless treat it as a motion to quash the service of the process, as the plea contains ail the necessary elements of such a motion. And it matters but little what name is given to the plea, if the matter it con- tains be well stated, and the matter thereof be true in point of faot. In this. instance there is no room left to doubt the correctness of either. The facts are fuUy and clearly, and, I might add, quite artistically, stated in the plea. The truth of the matters stated is beyond dispute, as the demurrer admits the allegations to be true, and we are to take the statpment of the defendants embodied in tjaeir plea as abso- lute verity. In mere personal actions, like this one, courts acquire no jurisdiction over the wrong-doers, or ths subject- matter of the oontroversy, until personal service, of pro- cess can be made on one or more defendants, or untU the defendants make voluntary appearance in the cause, either in person or byattorney. Before the district court of Lan- caster county, the court in which this suit was brought, could bave properly proceeded to judgment, it would have been necessary to find these defendants, or one of them, within the county, -where service could have been made. And if the defendants had been found within the jurisdiction of the said court, — that is, within Lancaster county, — and serv- ice had then been properly made, under ordinary oircum- stances the court thus acquiring jurisdiction would proceed to trial and judgment. What is here stated applies only to those who voluntarily corne within the jurisdiction of the court, where suit may be instituted and where personal service is properly had. �But in this case the defendants had been indicted in Lan- ����