William R. Day

“ Counsel and parties are entitled to a clear-cut statement of the law if it is possible to make one; and it would seem as if the removal acts were sufficiently old by this time to enable a court to select what appeared to be the best of conflicting rules.
'Since no case (irrespective of amount involved) can be removed over which the United States court might not have had original jurisdiction, it has always seemed to me illogical to consider a counterclaim in ascertaining the propriety of removal or remand. ”

“ If it be true that, by a preponderance of rulings, the affirmative claims set up in an answer are to be considered in determining jurisdiction, it is at least necessary that somewhere and in some shape the defendant who sets up conterclaims shall plead them in a manner which enables his opponent to criticize them, modify them, or expunge them, as may be proper under the rules of good pleading. ”

“ The action was brought in the city court by Feltenstein and Rosenstein, hereinafter called the plaintiffs, to recover a contingent counsel fee of $500 from Yankaus, hereinafter called the defendant, and for loans of $200 and $100 respectively,-in all, the sum of $800. Summons and complaint were served on October 11, 1915. On October 16, 1915, the defendant filed in the office of the clerk of the city court petition and bond for the removal of the cause to the United States district court for the southern district of New York. The bond was approved by a judge of the city court. ”