X. DISTRICT COURTS AND CLERKS Rule 77. District Courts and Clerks. (a) DISTRICT COURTS ALWAYS OPEN. The district courts shall be deemed always open for the purpose of filing any pleading or other proper paper, of issuing and returning mesne and final process, and of making and directing all interlocutory motions, orders, and rules. (b) TRIALS AND HEARINGS; ORDERS IN CHAMBERS. All trials upon the merits shall be conducted in open court and so far as convenient in a regular court room. All other acts or proceedings may be done or conducted by a judge in chambers, without the attendance of the clerk or other court officials and at any place either within or without the district; but no hearing, other than one ex parte, shall be conducted outside the district without the consent of all parties affected thereby. The (c) CLERK'S OFFICE AND ORDERS BY CLERK. clerk's office with the clerk or a deputy in attendance shall be open during business hours on all days except Sundays and legal holidays. All motions and applications in the clerk's office for issuing mesne process, for issuing final process to enforce and execute judgments, for entering defaults or judgments by default, and for other proceedings which do not require allowance or order of the court are grantable of course by the clerk; but his action may be suspended or altered or rescinded by the court upon cause shown. (d) NOTICE OF ORDERS OR JUDGMENTS. Immediately upon the entry of an order or judgment the clerk shall serve a notice of the entry by mail in the manner provided for in Rule 5 upon every party affected thereby who is not in default for failure to appear, and shall make a note in the docket of the mailing. Such mailing is sufficient notice for all purposes for which notice of the entry of an order is required by these rules; but any party may in addition serve a notice of such entry in the manner provided in Rule 5 for the service of papers. Rule 78. Motion Day. Unless local conditions make it impracticable, each district court shall establish regular times and places, at intervals sufficiently frequent for the prompt dispatch of business, at which motions requiring notice and hearing may be heard and disposed of; but the judge at any time or place and on such notice, if any, as he considers reasonable may make orders for the advancement, conduct, and hearing of actions. To expedite its business, the court may make provision by rule or order for the submission and determination of motions without oral hearing upon brief written statements of reasons in support and opposition. Rule 79. Books Kept by the Clerk and Entries Therein. (a) CIVIL DOCKET. The clerk shall keep a book known as "civil docket" of such form and style as may be prescribed by the Attorney General under the authority of the Act of June 30, 1906, c. 3914, § 1 (34 Stat. 754), as amended, U. S. C., Title 28, § 568, or other statutory authority, and shall enter therein each civil action to which these rules are made applicable. Actions shall be assigned consecutive file numbers. The file number of each action shall be noted on the folio of the docket whereon the first entry of the action is made. All papers filed with the clerk, all process issued and returns made thereon, all appearances, orders, verdicts, and judgments shall be noted chronologically in the civil docket on the folio assigned to the action and shall be marked with its file number. These notations shall be brief but shall show the nature of each paper filed or writ issued and the substance of each order or judgment of the court and of the returns showing execution of process. The notation of an order or judgment shall show the date the notation is made. When in an action trial by jury has been properly demanded or ordered the clerk shall enter the word "jury" on the folio assigned to that action. (b) CIVIL ORDER BOOK. The clerk shall also keep a book for civil actions entitled "civil order book" in which shall be kept in the sequence of their making exact copies of all final judgments and orders, all orders affecting title to or lien upon real or personal property, all appealable orders, and such other orders as the court may direct. (c) INDICES; CALENDARS. Separate and suitable indices of the civil docket and of the civil order book shall be kept by the clerk under the direction of the court. There shall be prepared under the direction of the court calendars of all actions ready for trial, which shall distinguish "jury actions" from "court actions". Rule 80. Stenographer; Stenographic Report or Transcript as Evidence. (a) STENOGRAPHER. A court or master may direct that evidence be taken stenographically and may appoint a stenographer for that purpose. His fees shall be fixed by the court and may be taxed ultimately as costs, in the discretion of the court. The cost of a transcript shall be paid in the first instance by the party ordering the transcript. (b) OFFICIAL STENOGRAPHERS. Each district court may designate one or more official court stenographers for the district and fix by rule of court the compensation which such stenographers shall be entitled to charge for their services, with provision that amounts properly paid by parties for the service of such stenographers be taxable as costs in the case in the discretion of the trial judge. The work of the stenographers shall be so arranged as to avoid delay in furnishing transcripts ordered for the purposes of motions for new trial, for amended findings, or for appeals. (c) STENOGRAPHIC REPORT OR TRANSCRIPT AS EVIDENCE. Whenever the testimony of a witness at a trial or hearing which was stenographically reported is admissible in evidence at a later trial, it may be proved by the transcript thereof duly certified by the person who reported the testimony. XI. GENERAL PROVISIONS Rule 81. Applicability in General. (1) These rules do not apply to proceedings in admiralty. They do not apply to proceedings in bankruptcy or proceedings in copyright under the Act of March 4, 1909, c. 320, § 25 (35 Stat. 1081), as amended, U. S. C., Title 17, § 25, except in so far as they may be made applicable thereto by rules promulgated by the Supreme Court of the United States. They do not apply to probate, adoption, or lunacy proceedings in the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia except to appeals therein. (2) In the following proceedings appeals are governed by these rules, but they are not applicable otherwise than on appeal except to the extent that the practice in such proceedings is not set forth in statutes of the United States and has heretofore conformed to the practice in actions at law or suits in equity: admission to citizenship, habeas corpus, quo warranto, and forfeiture of property for violation of a statute of the United States. (3) In proceedings under the Act of February 12, 1925, c. 213 (43 Stat. 883), U. S. C., Title 9, relating to arbitration, or under the Act of May 20, 1926, c. 347, § 9 (44 Stat. 585), U. S. C., Title 45, § 159, relating to boards of arbitration of railway labor disputes, these rules apply to appeals, but otherwise only to the extent that 100 |