Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/385

TOWN OF LYONS V. LYONS HAT. BANK. 371 �"Issues of fact in civil cases, in any circuit court, may be tried and de- terminee! by the court, without the intervention of a jury, whenever the parties, or their attorneys of record, flle with the clerk a stipulation in writ- ing waiving a jury. The finding of the court upon the f acts, which may be either general or special, shall have the same effect as the verdict of a jury." �It was also provided as follows by section 648 of the Revised Stat- utes: �" The trial of issues of fact in the circuit court shall be by jury, except in cases of equity, and of admirai ty and maritime jui-isdiction, and except as otherwise provided in proceedings in bankruptcy, and by the next section." �To carry out the provision of section 649 it was provided as fol- lows by section 700 : �" When an issue of fact in any civil cause in a circuit court is tried and determined by the court without the intervention of a jury, according to sec- tion 649, the rulings of the court in the progress of the trial of the cause, if excepted to at the time, and duly presented by a bill of exceptions, may be reviewed by the supreme court upon a writ of eiTor or upon appeal ; and, when the finding is special, the review may extend to the determination of the sufficiency of the facts found to support the judgment." �Subsequent to these provisions in regard to circuit courts the act of March 3, 1875, (18 St. at Large, 470,) waspassed, in section 3 of which itis enacted that "the trial of issues of fact in the circuit court shall, in all suits except those of equity, and of admiralty and mari- time jurisdiction, be by jury." Whether this provision relates only to such suits at law as are mentioned in section 3 — that is, suits at law removed from a state court — or whether it relates to all suits at law, and, if the latter, whether it supersedes the prior provisions of the Revised Statutes above cited in regard to trying suits in the cir- cuit court without a jury, and in regard to a review by the supreme court in such suits, are questions not presented for decision in this case. But it is to be observed that when authority was given to the circuit court to try an issue of fact without a jury, and to find the facts, it was considered necessary to make special provision for a review by the supreme court, by a writ of error, on a bill of ex- ceptions, of the rulings of the trial court in the progress of the trial. These provisions were first enacted together in section 4 of the act of March 3, 1865, (13 St. at Large, 501) and are those now embodied in section 649 and section 700 of the Revised Statutes. Such provisions are in addition to others which give to the supreme court general juriadiction on a writ of error to re-exatnine judgments of a circuit court in civil actions at law. There are no such provis- ions of statute in regard to trials by the court without a jur^ in ��� �