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Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, by

THE GILBERT BOOK COMPANY,

in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

359853

DAVID ATWOOD,
PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER,

MADISON, WIS,

EXPLANATORY.

1. The cases in this work are arranged by subjects, instead of chronologically. They are assigned to the various general heads of the law, and each subject is divided and subdivided, for convenience of arrangement and reference, with head-notes, or table of contents, at the head of each subject, the same as an ordinary digest.

2. At the head of each division of a subject will be found a digest or summary of the poin's of law in the cases assigned to such division. This SUMMARY is confined exclusively to the statement of the points of law applicable to the particular division under which the case is published, other points of law in the case, if any, being transferred to other subjects, or to other subdivisions of the same subject. Where points in a case are carried to another division of a subject, they are put into the foot-notes, or notes following the cases, and reference is made to the case by section numbers in parenthesis at the end of the section.

3. The cases in full are arranged, generally, according to the order of the sections of the SUMMARY. Where the court states the facts of the case, it is so indicated by the use of the words STATEMENT OF FACTS at the beginning of the opinion. Where it is necessary to state the facts apart from the opinion, the statement is made as brief as possible, and is confined to the facts necessary to enable the reader to understand the points decided. The cases are also divided into convenient paragraphs, with a brief statement at the beginning of each paragraph of the point of law discussed or decided. Reference is here had to the italic sections scattered through the opinion. These take the place of the syllabus usually placed at the head of the opinion, and, besides bringing out every point of law actually decided, in some instances call attention to a review of authorities, as well as various points of law which would ordinarily be classed as dicta.

4. At the end of a series of cases is a digest of points applicable to the particular subdivision of the subject. This digest matter is obtained from four sources: 1st. Cases assigned originally to the general head, but digested and thrown out in the final arrangement, not to appear in full in any part of the work. 2d. Points taken from cases which will appear in full under some other division of the same subject. 3d. Points taken from cases which are assigned to some other general head. 4th. A digest of cases from state reports, law periodicals, and the opinions of the Court of Claims and the Attorneys-General.

5. Cases that will not appear in full in any part of the work are denoted by a star following the name of the case, thus, DOE v. ROE.* The tables of cases will also contain a similar designation of rejected cases, so that in consulting them the reader will readily see whether he is referred to a case in full or only a digest.

6. The italic matter at the head of the SUMMARY takes the place of the side-heads, or catchwords, usually prefixed to the sections, and is intended as an index to the contents of the SUMMARY. At the end of each section of the SUMMARY the name of the case of which the section is a digest is given, followed by the numbers of the sections into which the case is divided, so that after the reader has read the section of the SUMMARY, and found that it is what he wants, he can at once turn to the case in full.

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL.

[PLEADING.]

The subject of Pleading has been edited by FRANK A. FARNHAM, ESQ., of Boston. I certify that in my opinion he has shown good judgment in printing or digesting cases, and that the points in those digested appear sufficiently in the cases printed in full.

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[PARTNERSHIP.]

BENJAMIN R. CURTIS.

I HEREBY CERTIFY, That the cases under the title "Partnership" submitted to me as digested by the general editor of · Federal Decisions," and not appearing important enough to be printed in full under that head, seem to me to have been discarded by him, after being digested, with good discretion.

Editor of the last edition of STORY ON PARTNERSHIP.

WILLIAM F. WHARTON. *

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