owner's death,43 and of a suit to recover damages for acts committed in a foreign court under the authority of the sovereign thereof.44 In § 65. Terms of the District Courts of the United States. general. No action, suit, proceeding, or process in any district court shall abate or be rendered invalid by reason of any act changing the time of holding such court, but the same shall be deemed to be returnable to, pending, and triable in the terms established next after the return day thereof."1 "District courts shall hold monthly adjournments of their regular terms, for the trial of criminal causes, when their business requires it to be done, in order to prevent undue expenses and delays in such Ordinarily, when one term begins, the preceding term, which is held in the same place, ends; unless it was the evident intention of the statute that the term should be concurrent in whole or in part.3 "When the trial or hearing of any cause, civil or criminal, in a District Court, has been commenced and is in progress before a jury or the court, it shall not be stayed or discontinued by the arrival of the time fixed by law for another session of said court; but the court may proceed therein and bring it to a conclusion, in the same manner and with the same effect as if another stated term of the court had not intervened.''4 A special term of a court may be held while a regular term is in session at another place in the same district, where there are two judges, each having authority to hold court in said district.5 The term of a District Court may be extended to a period subsequent to the opening of the succeeding statutory term, for the purpose of a particular case. A term of a District Court may be Fund Life Ass'n, C. C. A., 157 Fed. 43 See supra, § 54. 44 See infra, § 102a. $65. 1 Jud. Code § 7, 36 St. at L. 1087. 2 Jud. Code § 10, 36 Stat. at L. 1087. 3 Ex parte Friday, 43 Fed. 916, 918. 4 Jud. Code § 8, 36 St. at L. 1087. 5 East Tennessee Iron & Coal Co. v. Wiggin, C. C. A., 68 Fed. 446; U. S. v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 177 Fed. 780. 6 Alder v. Edenborn, 198 Fed. 928. See Guaranty Tr. Co. v. Metropolitan St. Ry. Co., C. C. A., 177 Fed. 925. adjourned to, and its regular continuous session may be resumed as a part of the same term, upon, a distant day; although another term of the court has been held during the adjournment at another place. Unless sooner adjourned, a term of a court of the United States may extend from the beginning thereof to the opening of the succeeding statutory term. It does not necessarily end at the opening of a term, held pursuant to a statute, in another place in the same district.9 The term does not expire until the limit set by law for its continuance; 10 except when it has been formally adjourned without a day, or when there has been no attendance at the opening of the term and no instruction to the marshal to adjourn for a subsequent day.12 If the judge of any district court is unable to attend at the commencement of any regular, adjourned, or special term, or any time during such term, the court may be adjourned by the marshal, or clerk, by virtue of a written order directed to him by the judge, to the next regular term, or to any earlier day, as the order may direct." 13 "When any district judge is prevented, by any disability, from holding any stated or appointed term of his district court, and that fact is made to appear by the certificate of the clerk, under the seal of the court, to any circuit judge of the circuit in which the district lies, or, in the absence of all the circuit judges, to the circuit justice of the circuit in which the district lies, any such circuit judge or justice may, if in his judgment the public interests so require, designate and appoint the judge of any other district in the same circuit to hold said court, and to 7 Florida V. Charlotte Harbor Phosphate Co., C. C. A., 70 Fed. 883. 8 Harlan v. McGourin, 218 U. S. 442, 450, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 44, 21 Ann. Cas. 849, 54 L. ed. 1101, 1106, affirming Ex parte Harlan, 180 Fed. 119; East Tennessee Iron & Coal Co. v. Wiggin, C. C. A., 68 Fed. 446. 9 Ibid. 10 Schofield v. Horse Springs Cattle Co., 65 Fed. 433. 11 Harlan v. McGourin, 218 U. S. 442, 450, 54 L. ed. 1101, 1106, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 44, 21 Ann. Cas. 849; affirming Ex parte Harlan, 180 Fed. 119. 12 Ex parte Harlan, 180 Fed. 119; aff'd, as Harlan v. McGourin, 218 U. S. 442, 450, 54 L. ed. 1101, 1106. 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 44, 21 Ann. Cas. 849. 13 Jud. Code § 12, 36 St. at L. 1087. discharge all the judicial duties of the judge so disabled, during such disability. Whenever it shall be certified by any such circuit judge or, in his absence, by the circuit judge of the circuit in which the district lies, that for any sufficient reason it is impracticable to designate and appoint a judge of another district within the circuit to perform the duties of such disabled judge, the chief justice may, if in his judgment the public interests as require, designate and appoint the judge of any district in another circuit to hold said 'court and to discharge all the judicial duties of the judge so disabled, during such disability. Such appointment shall be filed in the clerk's office, and entered on the minutes of the said district court, and a certified copy thereof, under the seal of the court, shall be transmitted by the clerk to the judge so designated and appointed.” 14 After the term has been regularly opened and adjourned, the failure of the judge to appear upon the adjourned day to appoint a time when the court will be resumed, does not forfeit the right to resume sittings at any time.15 § 66. Specific territorial jurisdiction and terms of the different District Courts of the United States. There is a District Court in each of the judicial districts of the United States.1 The Judicial Code provides: "§ 69. The United States are divided into judicial districts as follows: 66 "§ 70. The State of Alabama is divided into three judicial districts, to be known as the northern, middle, and southern districts of Alabama. The northern district shall include the territory embraced on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and ten, in the counties of Cullman, Jackson, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, and Morgan, which shall constitute the northmiddle division of said district; also the territory embraced on the date last mentioned in the counties of Colbert, Franklin, and Lauderdale, which shall constitute the northwestern division of said district; also the territory embraced on the date last mentioned in the counties of Cheroffee, De Kalb, Etowah, Marshall, and Saint Clair, which shall constitute the eastern division of said district; also the territory embraced on the date last mentioned in the counties of Blount, Jefferson, and Shelby, which shall constitute the southern division of said district; also the territory embraced on the date last mentioned in the counties of Walker, Winston, Marion, Fayette, and Lamar, which shall constitute the Jasper division of said district; also the territory embraced on the date last mentioned in the counties of Calhoun, Clay, Cleburne, and Talladega, which shall constitute the eastern division of said district; also the territory embraced on the date last mentioned in the counties of Bibb, Greene, Pickens, Sumter, and Tuscaloosa, which shall constitute the western division of said district. Terms of the district court for the northeastern division shall be held at Huntsville on the first Tuesday in April and the second Tuesday in October; for the northwestern division, at Florence on the second Tuesday in February and the third Tuesday in October: Provided, That suitable rooms and accommodations for holding court at Florence shall be furnished free of expense to the Government; for the middle division, at Gadsden on the first Tuesdays in February and August: Provided, That suitable rooms and accommodations for the holding court at Gadsden shall be furnished free of expense to the Government; for the southern division, at Birmingham on the first Mondays in March and September, which courts shall remain in session for the transaction of business at least six months in each calendar year; for the Jasper division, at Jasper on the second Tuesdays in January and June: Provided, That suitable rooms and accommodations for holding court at Jasper shall be furnished free of expense to the Government; for the eastern division, at Anniston on the first Mondays in May and November; and for the western division, at Tuscaloosa on the first Tuesdays in January and June. The clerk of the court for the northern district shall maintain an office in charge of himself or a deputy at Anniston, at Florence, at Jasper, and at Gadsden, which shall be kept open at all times for the transaction of the business of said court. The district judge for the northern district shall reside at Birmingham. The middle district shall include the territory embraced on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and ten, in the counties of Autauga, Barbour, Bullock, Butler, Chilton, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Elmore, Lowndes, Montgomery and Pike, which shall constitute the northern divi-s sion of said district; also the territory embraced on the date last mentioned in the counties of Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Henry, and Houston, which shall constitute the southern division of said district also the territory embraced on the date last mentioned in the counties of Chambers, Lee, Macon, Randolph, Russell and Tallapoosa, which shall constitute the eastern division of said middle judicial district. Terms of the district court for the northern division shall be held at Montgomery" on the first Tuesdays in May and December; for the southern division, at Dothan on the first Mondays in June and December and for the eastern division at Opelika on the first Mondays in April and November: "Provided, that suitable rooms and accommodations for holding court at Opelika shall be furnished free of expense to the Government. The clerk of the court for the middle district shall maintain an office, in charge of himself or a deputy, at Dothan, and shall maintain an office in charge of himself or a deputy, at Opelika, which said offices at Dothan and Opelika shall be kept open at all times for the transaction of the business of said divisions." "The southern district shall include the territory embraced on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and ten, in the counties of Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe, and Washington, which shall constitute the southern division of said district; also the territory embraced on the date last mentioned in the counties of Dallas, Hale, Marengo, Perry, and Wilcox, which shall constitute the northern division of said district. Terms of the district court for the southern division shall be held at Mobile on the fourth Mondays in May and November, and for the northern division, at Selma on the first Mondays in May and November." 2 "There is hereby established a district court for the district of 2 U. S. R. S., § 532, 36 St. at L. 1105, am'd Act of Feb'y 28, 1913, 37 St. at L. 698, Comp. St. § 1052. Under the Act of February 25, 1907, ch. 1198, 34 St. at L. 931; Comp. St. Supp. 1907, p. 187, which authorized the appointment of a separate district judge for the northern district, it was held that he and the judge previously appointed for the middle and northern districts, under Act of Aug. 2, 1886, ch. 842, § 2, 24 St. at L. 213, Comp. St. 1901, p. 449, had co-ordinate powers, and that each could appoint and remove a referee in bankruptcy within the northern district, 37 St. at L. 698, Comp. St. § 1052. Birch v. Steele, C. C. A., 165 Fed. 577; affirming Re Steele, 156 Fed. 853, and overruling Ex parte Steele, 161 Fed. 886, 162 Fed. 694. |