Central Trust Co. v. Wabash, St. L. & P. Ry. Co.

• Decision Date: 29 October 1887
• Citation: 32 F. 684
• Parties: CENTRAL TRUST CO. OF NEW YORK and others v. WABASH, ST. L. & P. RY. CO. and others. (Intervening petition of GILLILAND.)
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

32 F. 684

CENTRAL TRUST CO. OF NEW YORK and others v. WABASH, ST. L. & P. RY. CO. and others. (Intervening petition of GILLILAND.)

United States Circuit Court, E.D. Missouri.

October 29, 1887

Syllabus by the Court

A solicitor for an intervenor in an equity case, who prevails in such intervention, is not entitled to a docket fee of $20 under the provision of section 824 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. Such a termination of the intervening cause is not 'a final hearing in equity,' within the meaning of said statute.

A special master in chancery is not a 'referee,' within the meaning of said statute.

Such fees are not recoverable in such cases at common law, or under the statutes of the state of Missouri.

In such a case the intervenor is not entitled to recover a fee of $2.50 for each deposition taken and admitted in evidence under said section 824 of the Revised Statutes of the United States.

On the twenty-seventh of September, 1886, the intervenor filed his petition in the above-entitled cause, claiming damages against the receivers for the burning of hay, fencing, and injury to meadow land, alleged to have been caused on the thirteenth day of August, 1886, by the negligent operation on the part of the receivers of the locomotive attached to freight train No. 22. The petition was afterwards heard before Hon. E. T. ALLEN, who had heretofore been constituted special master in chancery in a suit to foreclose a mortgage on the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway, for the purpose of examining and reporting upon such claims, and other preferential demands against the mortgaged property, that might arise in the course of the proceeding. The special master, on the twenty-second day of June, 1887, found the issues in favor of intervenors, and recommended an order of court, directing the payment of the claim. No exceptions to this report were ever filed by the intervenor or the receivers, and upon the twelfth day of September, 1887, such report was filed and confirmed by the court. On the fifteenth day of October, 1887, the intervenor filed a motion praying for the retaxation of costs in said cause, and for the allowance of the following fees: (1) A docket fee of $20 in favor of the solicitor for intervenor; (2) a fee of $2.50 for certain depositions taken and admitted in evidence. Such allowances were claimed under section 824 of the Revised Statutes of the United States.

H. A Loevy, (James Carr, of counsel,) for intervenor.

George S. Grover and Eleneious Smith, for receivers.

THAYER J., (orally.)

In the matter of the intervening petition of R. J. Gilliland in the Wabash Case, a motion to retax the costs in that proceeding has been filed, and the point presented is whether the attorney for the intervenor in that case is entitled to a docket fee of $20, and whether he is entitled to $2.50 for each deposition taken and used in the case on the hearing. Vide section 824, Rev. St. U.S. The trial on account of which the docket fee is claimed was before a special master in chancery appointed in the course of a chancery suit, to audit and allow certain preferential claims against the property in the hands of the court through its receivers. There was a report in favor of the intervening petitioner. The character of the claim was this: It was a claim for damages sustained by the intervenor by the burning of a certain hay and fences which were set on fire by sparks from a locomotive attached to a freight train which was being operated by the receivers. The statute, Sec. 824, allows a docket fee of $20 to be taxed 'on a trial before a jury in civil or criminal causes, or before referees or on a final hearing in...