(31) No demurrer or plea shall be allowed to be filed to any bill, unless upon a certificate of counsel that in his opinion it is well founded in point of law, and supported by the affidavit of the defendant that it is not interposed for delay, and, if a plea, that it is true in point of fact.

(32) The defendant may at any time before the bill is taken for confessed, or afterwards with the leave of the court, demur of plead to the whole bill, or to part of it, and he may demur to part, plead to part, and answer as to the residue; but in every case in which the bill specially charges fraud or combination, a plea to such part must be accompanied with an answer fortifying the plea, and explicitly denying the fraud and combination, and the facts on which the charge is founded.

(33) The plaintiff may set down the demurrer or plea to be argued, or he may take issue on the plea. If, upon an issue, the facts stated in the plea be determined for the defendant, they shall avail him as far as in law and equity they ought to avail him.

(34) If, upon the hearing, any demurrer or plea is overruled, the plaintiff shall be entitled to his costs in the cause up to that period, unless the court shall be satisfied that the defendant had good ground in point of law or fact to interpose the same, and it was not interposed vexatiously or for delay. And upon the overruling of any plea or demurrer, the defendant shall be assigned to answer the bill, or so much thereof as is covered by the plea or demurrer, the next succeeding rule day, or at such other period as, consistently with justice and the rights of the defendant, the same can, in the judgment of the court, be reasonably done; in default whereof, the bill shall be taken against him pro confesso, and the matter thereof proceeded in and decreed accordingly.

(35) If, upon the hearing, any demurrer or plea shall be allowed, the defendant shall be entitled to his costs; but the court may, in its discretion, upon motion of the plaintiff, allow him to amend his bill upon such terms as it shall deem reasonable.

(36) No demurrer or plea shall be held bad and overruled, upon argument, only because such demurrer or plea shall not cover so much of the bill as it might by law have extended to.

(37) No demurrer or plea shall be held bad and overruled, upon argument, only because the answer of the defendant may extend to some part of the same matter as may be covered by such demurrer or plea.

(38) If the plaintiff shall not reply to any plea, or set down any plea or demurrer for argument, on the rule day when the same is filed, or on the next succeeding rule day, he shall be deemed to admit the truth and sufficiency thereof, and his bill shall be dismissed as of course, unless a judge of the court shall allow him further time for that purpose.

Answers

(39) The rule that, if the defendant submits to answer, he shall answer fully to all the matters of the bill, shall no longer apply in cases where he might, by plea, protect himself from such answer and discovery. And the defendant shall be entitled in all cases, by answer, to insist upon all matters of defense (not being matters of abatement, or to the character of the parties, or matters of form) in bar of or to the merits of the bill, of which he may be entitled to avail himself by a plea in bar; and in such answer he shall not be compellable to answer any other matters than he would be compellable to answer and discover upon filing a plea in bar, and an answer in support of such plea, touching the matters set forth in the bill to avoid or repel the bar or defense. Thus, for example, a bona fide purchaser for a valuable consideration, without notice, may set up that defense by way of answer instead of plea, and shall be entitled to the same protection, and shall not be compellable to make any further answer or discovery of his title than he would be in any answer in support of such plea.

(40) A defendant shall not be bound to answer any statement or charge in the bill, unless especially and particularly interrogated thereto; and a defendant shall not be bound to answer any interrogatory in the bill except those interrogatories which such defendant is required to answer; and where a defendant shall answer any statement or charge in the bill to which he is not interrogated, only by stating his ignorance of the matter so stated or charged, such answer shall be deemed impertinent.

December Term, 1852.

Ordered that the fortieth rule, heretofore adopted and promulgated by this court as one of the rules of practice in suits in equity in the circuit courts, be, and the same is hereby, repealed and annulled; and it shall not hereafter be necessary to interrogate a defendant specially and particularly upon any statement in the bill, unless the complainant desires to do so, to obtain a discovery.

(41) The interrogatories contained in the interrogating part of the bill shall be divided as conveniently as may be from each other, and numbered consecutively, 1 2, 3, etc.; and the interrogatories which each defendant is required to answer shall be specified in a note at the foot of the bill, in the form or to the effect following; that is to say: "The defendant (A. B.) is required to answer the interrogatories numbered, respectively, 1, 2, 3," etc.; and the office copy of the bill taken by each defendant shall not contain any interrogatories except those which such defendant is so required to answer, unless such defendant shall require to be furnished with a copy of the whole bill. If the complainant, in his bill, shall waive an answer under oath, or shall only require an answer under oath with regard to certain specified interrogatories, the answer of the defendant, though under oath, except such part thereof as shall be directly responsive to such interrogatories, shall not be evidence in his favor, unless the cause be set down for hearing on bill and answer only, but may nevertheless be used as an affidavit, with the same effect as heretofore, on a motion to grant or dissolve an injunction, or on any other incidental motion in the cause; but this shall not prevent a defendant from becoming a witness in his own behalf, under section three of the act of Congress of July 2, 1864. [The preceding sentence was added at the December Term, 1871.]

(42) The note at the foot of the bill, specifying the interrogatories which each defendant is required to answer, shall be considered and treated as part of the bill; and the addition of any such note to the bill, or any alteration in or addition to such note after the bill is filed, shall be considered and treated as an amendment of the bill.

(43) Instead of the words of the bill now in use, preceding the interrogating part thereof, and beginning with the words, "To the end, therefore," there shall hereafter be used words in the form or to the effect following: "To the end, therefore, that the said defendants may, if they can, show why your orator should not have the relief hereby prayed, and may, upon their several and respective corporal oaths, and according to the best and utmost of their several and respective knowledge, remembrance, information, and belief, full, true, direct, and perfect answer make to such of the several interrogatories hereinafter numbered and set forth, as by the note hereunder written they are respectively required to answer; that is to say: (1) Whether, etc. (2) Whether, etc."

(44) A defendant shall be at liberty, by answer, to decline answering any interrogatory, or part of any interrogatory, from answering which he might have protected himself by demurrer; and he shall be at liberty so to decline notwithstanding he shall answer other parts of the bill, from which he might have protected himself by demurrer.

(45) No special replication to any answer shall be filed; but if any matter alleged in the answer shall make it necessary for the plaintiff to amend his bill, he may have leave to amend the same, with or without the payment of costs, as the court or a judge thereof may in his discretion direct.

(46) In every case where an amendment shall be made after answer filed, the defendant shall put in a new or supplemental answer on or before the next succeeding rule day after that on which the amendment or amended bill is filed, unless the time is enlarged or otherwise ordered by a judge of the court, and upon his default the like proceedings may be had as in cases of an omission to put in an answer,