Notes
1. The pleader may use the material in one of the three sets of brackets. His choice will depend upon whether he desires to plead the document verbatim, or by exhibit, or according to its legal effect.
2. Under the rules free joinder of claims is permitted. See rules
8
(e) and
18. Consequently the claims set forth in each and all of the following forms may be joined with this complaint or with each other. Ordinarily each claim should be stated in a separate division of the complaint, and the divisions should be designated as counts successively numbered. In particular the rules permit alternative and inconsistent pleading. See Form
10.
Source
(As amended Jan. 21, 1963, eff. July 1, 1963.)
Notes of Advisory Committee on Rules—1963 Amendment
At various places, these Forms [Forms
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13,
18,
21] allege or refer to damages of “ten thousand dollars, interest, and costs,” or the like. The Forms were written at a time when the jurisdictional amount in ordinary “diversity” and “Federal question” cases was an amount in excess of $3,000, exclusive of interest and costs, so the illustrative amounts set out in the Forms were adequate for jurisdictional purposes. However, U.S.C. Title
28, § 1331 (Federal question; amount in controversy; costs) and § 1332 (Diversity of citizenship; amount in controversy; costs), as amended by Pub. Law 85–554, 72 Stat. 415, July 25, 1958, now require that the amount in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, be in excess of $10,000. Accordingly the Forms are misleading. They are amended at appropriate places by deleting the stated dollar amount and substituting a blank, to be properly filled in by the pleader.