Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/440

 428 FEDERAL REPORTER. �inal bill, where they are necessary to complete relief. Bran- don Manuf'g Go. v. Briner, 14 Blatchf. 371. And the practice is established of joining, for purposes of discovery, an officer of a defendant corporation, where plaintiff is entitled to dis- covery in a suit against a corporation. The reason of the rule, as stated by Lord Chancellor Talbot in the leading case of Wyck V. Mead, 3 P. W. 310, whieh seems to have finally established the practice, is that as "the plaintiff ought to have discovery," and as "the defendants can answer no otherwise than under their common seal, and though they answer never 80 falsely, still there is no remedy against them for perjury;" therefore, "it bas been a usual thing tp make the secretary, book-keeper, or any other officers of a company defendants. " As observed in that case, although the answer of the defend- ant could not be read against the company, "yet it may be of use to direct the plaintiff hpw to draw and pen his interroga- tories towards obtaining a better discovery," and "it may be very mischievous and injurious to,the subject to deprivethem of that discovery to which, in common justice, they are en- titled;" and, on the other baiid, "no manner of inconvenience can ensue from obliging such of&cers of a company to an- swer." Later cases have added but little either to the extent of the ruie or the exposition of the reason upon which it is based. It is conceded to be an exception to the general rule that a mere witness cannot be joined for purposes of dis- covery. And the rule bas been extended to members of a corporation who are not officers. Fenlon v. Hughes, 7 Ves. 289; Moodalay v. Morton, 1 Bro. Ch. 469; Dummer v. Chip- penham, 14 Ves. 245; Many y. Beckman Iron Co. 9 Paige, 188; U. S. V. Wagner, L. E. 2 Ch. 582; Glasscott v. Iron Co. 11 Sim. 305. �No case has gone so far as to join an ofScer of a corpora- tion for the purpose of a discovery of matters which were not within his knowledge as such officer, or leamed by him while in the service, or as a member of the corporation, nor, as in this case, matters -which took place before the corpora- tion was formed, or in which it had no part, though it ap- pears that by and through other sources of information the ��� �