Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 5.djvu/351



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the State of Alabama shall be, and the same is hereby, divided into three districts, in manner following, to wit: The counties of Walker, Pickens, Sumter, Marengo, Green, Perry, Bibb, Autauga, Coosa, Tallapoosa, Chambers, Shelby, Jefferson, and Tuscaloosa, shall compose one district, to be called the middle district; and a court shall be held for the said district at Tuscaloosa. The counties of Jackson, Madison, Limestone, Lauderdale, St. Clair, Marion, Fayette, Randolph, Taladega, Franklin, Lawrence, Morgan, Benton, Marshall, De Kalb, Cherokee, and Blount, shall hereafter compose one district, to be called the northern district; and a court shall be held for the same, as heretofore, at Huntsville: and the residue of the counties of said State shall hereafter compose the southern district of Alabama; and a court shall be held for the same, as heretofore, at Mobile.

. And be it further enacted, That there shall be held two terms of the district court for the middle district held at Tuscaloosa, in each year, to begin on the fourth Monday in May, and the first Monday after the fourth Monday in November; and the district judge of the United States for the State of Alabama is hereby required to hold the courts aforesaid; and, furthermore, to hold one or more special terms at Tuscaloosa in each year, if, in his opinion, the business of the court shall require it to be done.

. And be it further enacted, That the fourth Monday in May, and first Monday after the fourth Monday in November, in each year, shall be return days for writs and executions returnable to the said district court at Tuscaloosa; and the parties to such suits as shall be so returned shall make up their pleadings, under such rules as the court shall prescribe, in order to have the causes so returned in a state of readiness for trial at the succeeding regular term.

. And be it further enacted, That all causes at law or in chancery, pending in the said district courts at Mobile and Huntsville, or in the circuit court of the United States at Mobile, in which the defendant or defendants resided in the middle district (as hereby established) at the time of serving process shall be transferred for trial to the district court for the said middle district, and be proceeded in, heard, adjudged, and determined, in the same manner as though originally commenced or prosecuted in the said court; and it shall be the duty of the clerks of the said courts at Huntsville and Mobile safely to transmit to the clerk of the district court at Tuscaloosa the original papers in all cases hereby ordered to be transferred, together with a transcript of all orders and other proceedings had thereon.

. And be it further enacted, That all suits hereafter to be brought in either of said courts, not of a local nature, shall be brought in a court of the district where the defendant resides; but if there be more than one defendant, and they reside in different districts, the plaintiff may sue in either, and send duplicate writ or writs to the other defendants; on which the plaintiff or his attorney shall endorse that the writ thus sent is a copy of a writ sued out of a court of the proper district; and the said writs, when executed and returned into the office from which they issued, shall constitute one suit, and be proceeded in accordingly.

. And be it further enacted, That the judge of said district courts shall appoint a clerk of the district court of the middle district,