Hook v. Bosworth

• Decision Date: 27 November 1894
• Docket Number: 170.
• Citation: 64 F. 443
• Parties: HOOK et al. v. BOSWORTH et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

64 F. 443

HOOK et al. v. BOSWORTH et al.

No. 170.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

November 27, 1894

Isaac L. Morrison and Thomas Worthington, for appellants.

Bluford Wilson (Philip Barton Warren, of counsel), for appellees.

Before WOODS and JENKINS, Circuit Judges, and BUNN, District Judge.

JENKINS Circuit Judge.

The Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company owned a railway in the state of Illinois extending from the city of Pekin to Jacksonville, with a branch line from Havana to Springfield. The Jacksonville, Louisville & St. Louis Railroad Company owned a railway extending from Jacksonville to Centralia, a distance of about 112 miles. The Litchfield, Carrollton &amp Western Railroad Company and the Louisville & St. Louis Railway Company were respectively the owners of other lines of railway, the record not disclosing their location. It may be inferred, however, that they connected at one or more points with the other railways mentioned. Each railway company was an independent corporation, and it is to be inferred from the record, although not specifically so stated, that these several lines of railway were parts of one general system, and were operated together under some arrangement not disclosed by the record. On the 21st day of September, 1893, the Mercantile Trust Company of New York filed its bill in the court below against the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company to foreclose a mortgage or trust deed upon the railway from Pekin to Jacksonville and from Havana to Springfield. On the same day the court appointed the appellees receivers of the lines of railway mentioned. The order provided, among other things, that the receivers should forthwith be in possession of, operate, and maintain said railway and premises--

'Being the railroad of the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company, comprising also the Jacksonville, Louisville & St Louis Railroad Company, the Litchfield, Carrollton & Western Railroad Company, and the Louisville & St. Louis Railway Company, and including a partially constructed line of railway northwestwardly from Havana, together with all the constituent railroad lines now operated by said Chicago Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company, commonly known as the 'Jacksonville Southeastern Line,' more fully and particularly described as follows, to-wit: Extended, lying and being a railroad from the city of Pekin, through the counties of Tazewell, Mason, Cass, to and through the city of Jacksonville, in the county of Morgan; and thence, through the said county of Morgan and the counties of Macoupin and Montgomery, to and through Litchfield; and thence, through the counties of Montgomery, Macoupin, Madison, and St. Clair, to East St. Louis, in the said last-named county; and from Litchfield southeasterly, through the counties of Montgomery, Bond, and Clinton, to Centralia, in the county of Marion; and thence through the county of Marion, to Drivers, in the county of Jefferson; and from Havana, in said county of Mason, to Petersburg, in the county of Menard; and thence to Springfield, in the county of Sangamon; also, from Barnett westerly through Carlinville, in said county of Macoupin; thence through Carrollton, in the county of Greene, to Columbiana, on the Illinois river,-- together with all interests in, and contract rights and privileges for, the use of the Peoria & Pekin Union Railway from the said city of Pekin to the city of Peoria, in the county of Peoria, and all terminal contract rights and privileges at East St. Louis, all in the state of Illinois, together with all equipment owned, leased or held in car trusts or otherwise, and the tolls, rents, incomes, franchises, issues, and profits of the said Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company and its said constituent companies, and all their appurtenances, as well as their land and other premises as now held, used, and operated by the said company, as fully described in their existing mortgages, deeds of trust, leases, contracts, and other evidences of title and possession, reference thereto, for greater certainty, to be had, with all property rights, powers, privileges and franchises and equities now owned, possessed, held or controlled by the said the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company; it being the purpose and intention of this order to clothe the said receiver with all property rights, powers, privileges, and franchises now owned, possessed, held, or controlled by the said 'the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company, or any of the said constituent or affiliated lines now under a common management as the Jacksonville Southeastern Line.''

The bill of complaint in that case contained no reference to the Jacksonville, Louisville & St. Louis Railroad Company, or to any other of the companies above mentioned. Neither of them was a party to the bill, nor is any statement made therein of the manner in which, or the company by whom, such lines of railway were operated. The prayer of the bill, in addition to the usual prayer for foreclosure, asked for a receiver of the property covered by the mortgage of the Chicago Peoria & St Louis Railway Company, which mortgage did not affect any of the lines referred to other than those of that company. On the same day the court below ordered that certain petitions, cross petitions, and bills in the cases against the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway, Company, namely, R. J. Cavett, receiver (entitled and filed in the cause of the Mercantile Trust Company against the St. Louis & Chicago Railway Company et al.), John M. Coughlin et al. (entitled and filed in the intervening petition of R. J. Cavett, receiver), Woodward & Tiernan Printing Company, the St. Louis & Eastern Railway Company, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, be consolidated with the foreclosure suit mentioned, and under the title of that suit, and that they thereafter proceed under said name as one suit, with all rights reserved. The record before us is silent with reference to the charter of those petitions, cross petitions and cross bills, or of the suit against the St. Louis & Chicago Railway Company. The receivers so appointed took possession not only of the property of the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company, but also of the lines of railway of the other companies mentioned. On the 5th of December, 1893, the court directed the receivers to return to the Jacksonville, Louisville & St. Louis Railroad Company its railway and property. On the 9th of December, 1893, one Henry W. Putnam filed his bill against the Jacksonville, Louisville & St. Louis Railroad Company for the foreclosure of a certain mortgage or trust deed upon the line of railway of that company from Jacksonville to Centralia, and prayed for the appointment of a receiver, and on that day Mr. S. P. Wheeler was appointed such a receiver. Thereupon, on that day, an order was entered by the court in the case of the Mercantile Trust Company against the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company, reciting the appointment of a receiver of the Jacksonville, Louisville & St. Louis Railroad Company in the Putnam suit, and directing that the property of that company be turned over and delivered by the appellees to, and that the accounting with respect to its management theretofore ordered to be rendered by them to that company be made with, its receiver. For the quarter ending October 1, 1893, there became due to the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railway Company from the United States, for the transportation of the mails over its line of railway, the sum of $4,632.63, of which amount $453.20 was earned after September 21, 1893, and the remainder was earned prior to the filing of the bill of foreclosure and the appointment of the receivers. For the same quarter there became due to the Jacksonville, Louisville & St. Louis Railroad Company from the United States, for transportation of mails over its line of railway, the sum of $2,653.56. On the 20th of January, 1894, the appellees, as...