Grand Island & W.C.R. Co. v. Sweeney

• Decision Date: 05 June 1899
• Docket Number: 1,212-1,215.
• Parties: GRAND ISLAND & W.C.R. CO. et al. v. SWEENEY et al. (four cases).
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

95 F. 396

GRAND ISLAND & W.C.R. CO. et al. v. SWEENEY et al. (four cases).

Nos. 1,212-1,215.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

June 5, 1899

N. K Griggs, Henry Frawley, J. P. Laffey, and Charles F Manderson, for appellants.

Charles W. Brown, Eben W. Martin, and Norman T. Mason, for appellees.

Before CALDWELL and THAYER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

These are suits which were brought by Thomas Sweeney, the appellee to recover the value of certain blasting materials which were supplied by him to Chamberlain & Skinner, Carroll Donoghue & Co., and to Nathan Westcott, who were respectively, subcontractors under John Fitzgerald & Bro. for the construction of certain sections of the Grand Island & Wyoming Central Railroad Company, lying within the state of South Dakota. John Fitzgerald & Bro. were the original contractors with said railroad company for the construction of its entire line of road, and sublet portions of the work to the three parties above named, who are hereafter referred to as 'subcontractors,' and who, in turn, purchased from Thomas Sweeney, the complainant below, certain materials for blasting purposes, which were consumed in the construction of the several sections of the railroad which they had respectively contracted to construct. Under and by virtue of the laws of the state of South Dakota (Comp. Laws Dak. 1887, c. 31, Sec. 5469), the complainant claimed to be entitled to a lien upon the railroad for the value of the materials which he had so supplied to said subcontractors. The present suits appear to have been brought to obtain a judgment against the several subcontractors to whom the materials were supplied, as well as a lien, to secure the payment of the judgment, against the property of the railway company. The decrees which were eventually rendered in the several cases in accordance with the prayer of the complaints ascertained and fixed the amount which was due to the complainant from the several subcontractors to whom the materials had been furnished, and adjudged that the amount so due be paid by the respective subcontractors and by the defendant railway company within 30 days thereafter, and that in default of such payment the property of the railway company to which the lien attached should be sold to satisfy the respective amounts so as aforesaid found to be due from the respective subcontractors to the complainant. From these decrees in the respective cases the defendant railway company and John Fitzgerald & Bro., the original contractors, have appealed, without joining the subcontractors as appellants, and without obtaining a judgment of severance against them, and without giving said subcontractors any...