Cases transferred to circuit

court.

Books, papers and records.

Copies of re

ments.

§ 2. All causes now pending in said court of common pleas shall be transferred to the circuit court of Randolph county, state of Illinois, and may be tried and disposed of in the same manner in said circuit court that they might have been in said court of common pleas.

§ 3. All books, papers, records and reports, of every kind and description whatsoever, belonging to the said court of common pleas, whether in the hands of the judge, clerk, marshal, deputy or commissioner of said court of common pleas, shall be transferred to the said circuit court, and shall have the same force and effect that they now have by law, and the records and papers aforesaid shall be taken charge of by the clerk of the circuit court of said county and retained in the said office of said circuit clerk. And after such records, books, reports and papers have been transferred to said circuit court, fee bills and executions may issue from such circuit court on judgments rendered in said court of common pleas, which said fee bills and executions shall have the same effect and force as if issued from said court of common pleas before the passage of this act.

§ 4. All copies of any such records, writs, judgments, cords and judg- executions, decrees and orders of said court of common pleas, and any return upon any such writ by an officer of said court, or other proceedings having been had in said common pleas court, when property certified by the clerk of the said circuit court, may be read and used in evidence in any court of record in this state.

Appeals and writs of error.

to the supreme

court.

§ 5. All appeals, writs of error, and all proceedings of any kind whatsoever heretofore taken from or out of said court of common pleas to the supreme court of this state, shall, if remanded or returned for any cause, be remanded or returned to the said circuit court, and have the same force and effect in law as if originally began in said circuit

court.

Writs of error § 6. Writs of error and appeals may be taken from the judgments and decrees of the said court of common pleas to the supreme court of this state, as is now provided by law, and the clerk of the said circuit court shall make up the records and certify to them in the same manner as now required of the clerk of the said court of common pleas.

Salaries.

7. No officer of said court of common pleas shall draw any salary or receive any pay or emoluments whatever for services performed after this act takes effect.

8. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

APPROVED April 6, 1871.

1872.

AN ACT to dispose of the dockets, books and papers, and settle the unfinished In force July 1, business of the late recorder's court of the city of Sparta, in Randolph county, state of Illinois.

and papers.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That all Dockets, books dockets, books and papers belonging to the recorder's court of the city of Sparta, Randolph county, state of Illinois, shall be placed and remain in the custody and control of the police magistrate of the said city.

trate.

§ 2. It shall be the duty of the said police magistrate, Duty of magiswhen so required, to issue execution on any and all unexecuted judgments in the said recorder's court, and to make transcripts of judgments, as is required of justices of the peace, and as hereinafter required.

§ 3. In all cases of judgment on the docket in said recorder's court, wherein the amount due shall exceed the sum of two hundred dollars, it shall be the duty of the said police magistrate, when so required, to make a transcript of all the proceedings in such case, and transmit the same to the clerk of the circuit court of Randolph county aforesaid, and the said clerk shall enter the same on the docket and proceed to issue any papers or writ thereon, and in the same manner as in transcript judgments from justices of the peace, and shall have the same force and effect.

APPROVED April 9, 1872.

Transcript of

proceedings.

COURTS OF CHANCERY.

AN ACT to regulate the practice in courts of chancery.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the several circuit courts of this state and superior court of Cook county, in all causes of which they may have jurisdiction as courts of chancery, shall have power to proceed therein according to the mode hereinafter prescribed; and where no provision is made by this act, according to the general usage and practice of courts of equity.

In force July 1, 1872.

Mode of procedure.

tablish rules.

§ 2. The judges of the circuit courts and of the superior Judges may escourt of Cook county, in their respective circuits, may estab lish rules of proceeding in chancery, and make all needful orders and regulations, consistent with the practice of courts of chancery, in cases not provided for by law.

Suits commenced.

Mode of com

mencing.

Guardians and conservators.

Court to appoint guardian.

Unknown owners as defendants.

Summons.

Returnable.

Process.

§ 3. Suits in chancery shall be commenced in the county where the defendants, or some one or more of them resides; or if the defendants are all non-residents, then in any county; or if the suit may affect real estate, in the county where the same or some part thereof is situated. Bills for injunctions to stay proceedings at law, shall be brought in the county in which the proceedings at law are had.

§ 4. The mode of commencing suits in chancery shall be by filing a bill of complaint with the clerk of the proper court, setting forth the nature of the complaint.

§ 5. Suits in chancery may be commenced and prosecuted by infants, either by guardian or next friend, and by conservators on behalf of the persons they represent.

86. In any cause in equity it shall be lawful for the court in which the cause is pending to appoint a guardian, ad litem, to any infant or insane defendant in such cause, and to compel the person so appointed to act. By such appointment, such person shall not be rendered liable to pay costs of suit; and he shall, moreover, be allowed a reasonable sum for his charges as such guardian, to be fixed by the court, and taxed in the bill of costs.

§ 7. In all suits in chancery, and suits to obtain title to lands, in any of the courts of this state, if there be persons interested in the same, whose names are unknown, it shall be lawful to make such persons parties to such suits or proceedings, by the name and description of unknown owners, or unknown heirs or devisees of any deceased person, who may have been interested in the subject matter of the suit previous to his or her death; but in all such cases an affidavit shall be filed by the party desiring to make any unknown person a party, stating that the names of such persons are unknown, and process shall be issued against all parties, by the name and description given as aforesaid; and notices given by publication, as is required in this act, shall be sufficient to authorize the court to hear and determine the suit, as though all parties had been sued by their proper names.

§ 8. Upon the filing of every bill, the clerk of the court shall thereupon issue a summons, tested, dated and sealed as a summons in common law suits, directed to the sheriff of the county in which the defendant resides, if the defendant be a resident of this state, requiring him to appear and answer the bill on the return day of the summons; and where there are several defendants residing in different counties, a separate summons shall be issued to each county, including all the defendants residing therein.

$9. Every summons in chancery shall be made returnable to the next term of the court after the date thereof, or the next succeeding term thereafter.

10. If, in any suit in chancery, the process shall not be returned executed on or before the return day thereof,

the clerk, if required, shall issue an alias pluries, or other process, without an order of the court therefor.

mons.

§ 11. Service of summons shall be made by delivering Service of suma copy thereof to the defendant, or leaving such copy at his usual place of abode, with some person of the family, of the age of ten years or upwards, and informing such person of the contents thereof. If service is not had at least ten days before the return day of such summons, the cause shall stand continued till the next term of the court.

Whenever any complainant or his attorney shall § 12. file in the office of the clerk of the court in which his suit is pending, an affidavit showing that any defendant resides or hath gone out of this state, or on due inquiry cannot be found, or is concealed within this state, so that process can not be served upon him, and stating the place of residence of such defendant if known, or that upon diligent inquiry his place of residence cannot be ascertained, the clerk shall cause publication to be made in some newspaper printed in his county, and if there be no newspaper published in his county, then in the nearest newspaper published in this state, containing notice of the pendency of such suit, the names of the parties thereto, the title of the court, and the time and place of the return of summons in the case; and he shall also, within ten days of the first publication of such notice, send a copy thereof by mail, addressed to such defendant whose place of residence is stated in such affidavit. The certificate of the clerk that he has sent such notice in pursuance of this section, shall be evidence.

$13. 13. The notice required in the preceding section may be given at any time after the commencement of the suit, and shall be published at least once in each week for four successive weeks, and no default or proceeding shall be taken against any defendant not served with summons, or a copy of the bill, and not appearing, unless forty days shall intervene between the first publication, as aforesaid, and the first day of the term at which such default or proceeding is proposed to be taken.

Affidavit complainant.

Notice.

of

§ 14. The complainant may cause a copy of the bill, Copy of the bill together with a notice of the commencement of the suit, to be delivered to any defendant residing or being without this state, not less than thirty days previous to the commencement of the term at which such defendant is required to appear; which service, when proved to the satisfaction of the court, shall be as effectual as if such service had been made in the usual form, within the limits of this state. The service by a copy of the bill may be proved by the affidavit of the person serving the same, made before any officer authorized to administer oaths in the place where the affidavit is made, or in case the service is made in any foreign country, before any United States minister or consul residing in the country where the same is made.

In case of continuance.

When defendant is summoned.

Answer to the bill.

confessed.

15. If, for want of due publication or service in time, the cause shall be continued, then the same proceedings may be had at a subsequent term of the court as might have been had at the term to which said summons is returnable.

§ 16. Every defendant who shall be summoned, served with a copy of the bill or petition, or notified as required in this act, shall be held to except, demur, plead or answer on the return day of the summons; or if the summons is not served ten days before the first day of the term at which it is returnable by the first day of the next term; or in case of service by copy of the bill, or by notice, at the expiration of the time required to be given, or within such further time as may be granted by the court; or, in default thereof, the bill may be taken as confessed.

§ 17. If the defendant shall appear at the next term and offer to file his answer to the bill, the court may permit him to do so, upon his showing sufficient cause, and paying the costs of the preceding terms. In such case, the decree shall be vacated, and the cause may be proceeded in as in other

cases.

Where bill is § 18. Where a bill is taken for confessed, the court, before a final decree is made, if deemed requisite, may require the complainant to produce documents and witnesses to prove the allegations of his bill, or may examine him on oath or affirmation touching the facts therein alleged. Such decree shall be made in either case as the court shall consider equitable and proper.

Final decree.

§ 19. When any final decree shall be entered against any defendant who shall not have been summoned or been served with a copy of the bill, or received the notice required to be sent him by mail, and such person, his heirs, devisees, executor, administrator or other legal representatives, as the case may require, shall, within one year after notice in writing given him of such decree, or within three years after such decree, if no such notice shall have been given as aforesaid, appear in open court and petition to be heard touching the matter of such decree, and shall pay such costs as the court shall deem reasonable in that behalf, the person so petitioning may appear and answer the complainant's bill, and thereupon such proceedings shall be had as if the defendants had appeared in due season and no decree had been made. And if it shall appear, upon the hearing, that such decree ought not to have been made against such defendant, the same may be set aside, altered or amended as shall appear just; otherwise the same shall be ordered to stand confirmed against said defendant. The decree shall, after three years from the making thereof, if not set aside in manner aforesaid, be deemed and adjudged confirmed against such defendant, and all persons claiming under him by virtue of any act done subsequent to the com