Chapter 326.
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CHAP. 326.— An act to detach certain territory from the eastern judicial district of Michigan and to attach the same to the western judicial district of Michigan, and to provide for divisions in said western district and for holding the district and circuit courts therein, and for other purposes. June 19, 1878. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That the counties of Chippewa,Michigan.Counties detached from eastern to western district.
School-craft, Marquette, Houghton, Keweenaw, Ontonagon, Isle Royale, Baraga, and Mackinaw being and including all that portion of the territory and waters of said eastern district lying in the upper peninsula of Michigan be and the same are hereby detached from the eastern judicial district of Michigan and attached to the western judicial district of said State. Sec. 2. That for the trial and determination of all causes and proceedingsTwo trial-divisions in western district. cognizable and triable in the circuit and district courts of the United States for the western district of Michigan as bounded and described in this act, the said district shall consist of two divisions known respectively as the southern and northern divisions of said district. 176 FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS.
Sess. II. Ch. 326. 1878. Division boundaries.The southern division shall comprise all that portion of said district lying and being in the lower peninsula of said State, and the northern division of said district shall comprise all the territory and waters of Terms of court.the entire upper peninsula of said State; and there shall be two regular terms of the circuit and district courts begun and held in each of the divisions of said western district annually. The regular terms of the circuit and district courts in said southern division shall be held at the city of Grand Rapids, commencing on the first Tuesdays of March and October in each year.
The regular terms of the circuit and district courts in said northern division shall be held at the city of Marquette, commencing upon the first Tuesdays of May and September in each year. Issues of fact, where triable.And all issues of fact shall be tried at the terms of said Venue.courts to be held in the division where such suits shall hereafter be commenced; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the said circuit and district courts from regulating by general rule the venue of transitory actions, either in law or in equity, and from changing the same for cause.
Sec. 3. Suits, where to be brought. That all suits and proceedings hereafter to be brought in the said circuit or district courts not of a local nature, shall be brought in a court of the division of the district where the. defendant resides; but if there be more than one defendant, and they reside in different divisions of the district, the plaintiff may sue in either divisions 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 division of the said district; and the said writs when executed and returned into the office from winch they issued, shall constitute one suit, and be proceeded in accordingly.
Sec. 4. Clerk’s office in western district. The clerk of the circuit and district courts for the western district of Michigan shall reside and keep his office at Grand Rapids, and Deputy clerk.shall also appoint a deputy clerk for said courts held at Marquette, who shall reside and keep his office at that place; and said deputy clerk shall keep in his office full records of all actions and proceedings in the said circuit and district courts for the northern division of said district held at that place, and shall have the same power to issue all processes from the said courts and perform any other duty that is or may be given to the clerks of other circuit and district courts in like cases.
Sec. 5. District attorney and marshal. That the district attorney and marshal of the said western district of Michigan shall respectively perform the duties of district attorney and marshal for the southern and northern divisions of said Deputy marshal at Marquette.district as established by this act. The marshal of said district shall keep An office and a deputy marshal at Marquette in the nortern division of said district. Sec. 6. Criminal causes, where to be tried. Any person charged with violating any of the penal or criminal statutes of the United States of which the said circuit or district courts have jurisdiction, shall be proceeded against by indictment or otherwise, within the division of said district where the alleged offense or offenses shall be committed, and shall have his or her trial at a term of the said court held in said division, unless for cause shown, the Juries.judge shall otherwise direct; and one grand and one petit jury only shall be summoned, and serve in both said courts at each term thereof; and jurors shall be selected and drawn from the division of the said district in which they reside and in which the terms of the said circuit ant district courts to which they are summoned are held.
Sec. 7. Pending causes in eastern district. This act shall not affect or in any wise interfere with causes of action now pending in the circuit and district courts for the eastern district of Michigan, but the same may be proceeded with in the same manner as though this act had not been passed: *Provided, however, *That upon cause shown, the circuit and district courts for the eastern district may transfer civil causes arising in that portion of said district detached therefrom by this act to the circuit and district courts for the northern division of the western district of Michigan, provided for in this act.
The circuit and district courts for the eastern district FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 326, 327, 328. 1878. 177 of Michigan shall continue to have the same jurisdiction in reference to all crimes and offenses committed prior to the passage of this act in any portion of the State of Michigan by this act detached from said eastern district and attached to said western district. Sec. 8. All provisions of law in conflict with this act are herebyRepeals. repealed. Sec. 9. There shall be one or more terms of the district court for theTerms at Port Huron. eastern district of Michigan, held annually at the United States court room in the city of Port Huron in said district, in the discretion of the judge of said district court, and at such times as he shall appoint therefor.
Approved, June 19, 1878.