Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/446

 434 FEDERAL REPORTER. �Wm. A. Lewis, for plaintiff. �McGarter e Keen, for defendant, �Nixon, D. J. This is a motion to open and set aside a judgment as improvidently entered. The summons in the case was retumable on the twenty-tbird of March, 1880. Before the time expired for filing the declaration, to-mt, on the twenty-first of April, the attorneys for the defendant cor- poration signed a consent in writing, as foUows : " We hereby consent and agree that the time within which plaintiff's declaration in the above cause may be filed, be extended 30 days from date, to-wit, until the twenty-second day of May next." �On the eighteenth day of May, before the expiration of the extended time, the plaintiff filed his declaration and gave written notice thereof to the attorneys of the defendant, and, at their request, furnished to them a copy of the declaration as filed. �No further steps seem to have been taken in the cause until the twenty-second day of November following, when the plaintiff entered a rule for judgment by default, and had his damages assessed by the clerk of the court. �Is such' a judgment regular? By section 914 of the Ee- vised Statutes of the United States 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 the courts of record of the state within which such circuit and district courts are held, any rule of court to the contrary notwithstanding. �It hence becomes neoessary to turn to the statutes and the rules of the law courts of the state to ascertain the forms and modes of proceeding in such a case. �Under the Practice Aot of New Jersey, (§§ 108-4,) the plaintiff is required to file his declaration against the de- fendant within 30 days after being returned "summoned," and the defendant his plea within 30 days after the expira- tioa of the time limited or granted for filing the declaration. ����