CHAPTER XIX 
READING REPORTED CASES AND STATUTES AND 
ABSTRACTING REPORTED CASES 118 
The Reports. The reports are generally, in the United 
States, the reports of proceedings in appellate courts, but they 
may be the reports of proceedings in trial courts ; and they may 
be the reports of only a portion of the proceedings instead of 
all the proceedings in any particular litigation. A complete 
report of a case generally contains: the title of the case; 
headnote or syllabus; statement of the case; abstract of argu- 
ments of counsel ; opinion or opinions of the court; and a -state- 
ment of the disposition of the case. 
Title. The title of a case in a trial court is made up of 
the names of the parties litigant, with a designation of the 
character in which they appear. Thus, in an action by John 
Brown against Peter Jones, the title would be John Brown, 
Plaintiff, v. Peter Jones, Defendant, or sometimes In re Peter 
Jones. On appeal, in the latter case, the title remains the 
same; but in the former, the title depends upon the jurisdic- 
tion. In some jurisdictions, the first name in the title on ap- 
peal is that of the one appealing. If Peter Jones, for example, 
should appeal, the title would appear Peter Jones, Appellant 
(or Plaintiff in Error) v. John Brown, Appellee (or Respond- 
ent, or Defendant in Error) . In other jurisdictions the order 
of the names of parties is not changed but only the designa- 
tion. In -such jurisdictions, even if Peter Jones should appeal, 
the title would remain J ohn Brown, Appellee (or Respondent , 
or Plaintiff -Appellee) v. Peter Jones, Appellant (or Defend- 
ant-Appellant) . In the casebooks, placed in the hands of stu- 
dents for use in law schools, the title includes not only the 
names and designation of parties, but the date of the decision, 
and the book and page of the official report wherein the case 
was originally reported. 
Headnote. The headnote or syllabus, which generally 
comes at the head of a report below the title, is sometimes 
made by a reporter and sometimes by the judge who writes 
the opinion for the court, and it is sometimes an abstract 
of the facts with a statement of the decision and sometimes 
ns Morgan, Introduction to Study of Law; Wambaugh, Study of Cases. 
( 223 ) 
