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§ 1. An appeal may be taken to the Court of Appeals as a matter of right from the judgment of the circuit court in all cases in which the title to land or the right to an easement therein, or the right to enforce a statutory lien thereon is directly involved, but no appeal shall be taken to the Court of Appeals as a matter of right from a judgment for the recovery of money or personal property, or any interest therein, or to enforce any lien thereon, if the value in controversy be less than five hundred dollars, exclusive of interest and costs; nor to reverse a judgment granting a divorce, or punishing contempt; nor from any order or judgment of the county court, except in actions for the division of land and allotment of dower; nor from an order or judgment of the quarterly, police, fiscal or justices' court; nor from a bond having the force of a judgment. In all other civil cases the Court of Appeals shall have appellate jurisdiction over the final orders and judgments of the circuit courts: Provided, however, that the Court of Appeals may grant an appeal when it is satisfied from an examination of the record that the ends of justice require that the judgment appealed from should be reversed; or when the construction or validity of a statute or the construction of a section of the Constitution is necessarily and directly put in issue, and a correct decision of the case cannot be had without passing on the validity of the statute or construing the section of the Constitution or statute involved, if the value of the amount or thing in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, is as much as two hundred dollars.

§ 2. When the judgment appealed from does not, when construed in connection with the pleadings, certainly fix the value of the amount or thing in controversy, the court shall, upon the request of either party, state in the judgment the actual value in controversy, and this valuation shall be conclusive of the amount in controversy for the purposes of appeal.

RULE NO. XX. Regulating appeals in civil cases when amount in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, is as much as $200 and less than $500. If a party desires to prosecute an appeal from a judgment for the recovery of money or personal property, or to enforce a lien thereon, in cases where the value in controversy is as much as $200, exclusive of interest and costs, but less than $500, he must prepare and file his record in the clerk's office of this court in the time and manner now provided by law, and may supersede the judgment by executing bond before the clerk of this court as in other cases when appeals are prayed in this court. Briefs must be filed, as provided by the rules of the court, and there must accompany the record a written motion of the appellant asking the court to grant an appeal. case will be put on the docket in the same manner and called at the same time as other cases, and will receive the same consideration. If, on considering the case, it appears to the court that error was committed by the lower court prejudicial to the substantial rights of the appellant, or that the construction of a statute or section of the Constitution is involved, the motion to grant an appeal will be sustained and an opinion written; but if it appears that the substantial rights of the appellant were not prejudiced by errors committed in the lower court, and that the judgment should be affirmed, the motion will be overruled without an opinion, unless the court thinks the questions involved of sufficient importance to write an opinion.

The

CHIEF JUSTICE, HIS DUTY.

in the bill of exceptions; provided that it

matters of order in the court room.

MOTIONS TO BE WRITTEN, SIGNED AND FILED.

Rule 2. All motions in a cause shall be in writing, signed by counsel and filed of record.

ARGUMENT OF MOTIONS.

Rule 3. No motion shall be argued unless by the direction of the court.

DIMINUTION OF RECORD, SUGGESTION AFTER JOINDER IN ERROR.

Rule 4. No suggestion of diminution of record in civil cases will be entertained by the court after joinder in error, except by consent of parties.

APPLICATION FOR CERTIORARI. Rule 5. Whenever a certiorari may be applied for, there shall be an affidavit of the defect in the transcript which it is designed to supply, and at least twenty-four hours' notice shall be given to the adverse party or his attorney previous to the making of the application.

REVIEWING INSTRUCTIONS. Rule 6. For the purpose of reviewing the action of the trial court, in giving and refusing instructions, it shall not be necessary to set out the evidence in the bill of exceptions;

but it shall be sufficient to state that there

was evidence tending to prove the particular fact or facts. If the parties disagree as to

what fact or facts the evidence tends to prove, then the evidence of the witnesses may be stated in a narrative form avoiding repetition and omitting all immaterial matter.

BILL OF EXCEPTIONS IN EQUITY
CASES.

Rule 7. In cases of equitable jurisdiction the whole of the evidence shall be embodied 169 S.W.

documentary evidence where there is no dispute as to the admissibility or legal effect thereof; and provided further that parol evidence may be reduced to a narrative form where this can be done and at the same time preserve full force and effect of the evidence.

PRESUMPTION IN SUPPORT OF BILL OF EXCEPTIONS.

Rule 8. The only purpose of a statement, in a bill of exceptions, that it set out all the evidence in the cause, being that the Supreme Court may have before it the same matter which was decided by the court of first instance, it shall be presumed as a matter of fact in all bills of exceptions, for the future, that they contain all the evidence applicable to any particular ruling to which exception is saved.

MAKING UP TRANSCRIPTS.

Rule 9. The clerks of the several circuit courts and other courts of the first instance, before which a trial of any cause is had, in which an appeal is taken or writ of error is sued out, shall not (unless an exception is saved to the regularity of the process, or its execution, or to the acquiring by the court of jurisdiction in the cause), in making out transcripts of the record for the Supreme Court, set out the original or any subsequent writ or the return thereof; but in lieu thereof shall say (e. g.): "Summons issued October 2, 1891, executed October 5, 1891," and, if any pleading be amended, the clerk, in making out transcripts, will treat the last amended pleading as the only one of that order in the cause, and will refrain from setting out any abandoned pleading or part of the record, unless it be made such by a bill of exceptions; and no clerk shall insert in the transcript any matter touching the organization of the court, or any mention of any continuance, motion or affidavit in the cause, unless the same be specially called for by the bill of exceptions.