Chicago & P. R. v. Third Nat. Bank of Chicago

26 F. 820, 1886 U.S. App. LEXIS 2011
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1886
StatusPublished

This text of 26 F. 820 (Chicago & P. R. v. Third Nat. Bank of Chicago) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago & P. R. v. Third Nat. Bank of Chicago, 26 F. 820, 1886 U.S. App. LEXIS 2011 (uscirct 1886).

Opinion

Geesham, J.

The Chicago & Pacific Railroad Company was organized in 1865, to build a railroad from Chicago to the Mississippi river. In the prosecution of its enterprise the company contracted debts amounting to over $2,000,000. To raise money to pay this indebtedness, and to complete and equip its road, the company, on the first day of October, 1872, executed a trust deed or mortgage, embracing its property of every character and description, to secure an issue of $3,000,000 bonds, $2,000,000 of which were sold or delivered to creditors as collateral security. Early in 1876, the company had built its road from Chicago to Byron, a distance of 89 miles. Suit [821]*821was commenced in this court in May, 1876, to foreclose tlie mortgage, and in May, 1879, the properly and franchises were sold, subject to redemption, under a decree previously entered, to John I. Blair and others, for $916,100. On the second day of April, 1880, the company, with the approval of its stockholders, leased its railway and other property, including its franchises, to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company for 95)9 years. In addition to the foregoing facts, the lease contained the following recitals:

“ Whereas, certain other parties to whom the said party of the second part (tlie (’hieago & Pacific) was so as aforesaid indebted, have prosecuted their several demands in the superior and circuit courts of Cook county and other courts of the state of Illinois, and have procured divers judgments thereon which now remain unpaid and unsatisfied of record, and are a lieu upon the property of the said party of the first part, and other of said demands still remain unliquidated; and whereas, the said party of the second part, at the request of the said party of the first part, (the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Company,) now proposes to aid the party of the first part in procuring a sufficient sum of money to redeem said property from the aforesaid sale, and to protect said property from all the aforesaid valid judgmont liens, and also to extend and construct the road of said party of the first part to tlie Mississippi river; also to secure all proper and necessary terminal facilities and depots and grounds along the line; also to relay that part of the road already constructed, with steel rails, arid to fully equip said road with all necessary rolling stock, so as to make the entire line a first-class railroad in all respects, — the entire or aggregate cost of which is estimated at three millions of doilars, for which said sum the parties hereto, by their proper officers, propose to execute their joint and several bonds of one thousand dollars each, bearing date the second day of April, A. D. 1880, and becoming due and payable on the first day of January, A. I). 1910, bearing interest'at six per cent, per annum, payable semi-annually, viz., on the first days of January and July of each year, at the office or agency of the party of the second part, in the city of Yew York, which said bonds are to be secured by a trust deed or mortgage, of even date with said bonds, of all tlie railroad franchises and other property of the parly of the first part, to the Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company, of the city of Yew York; and whereas, the said party of tiie second part, at the like request of the party of the first part, proposes to take up, pay, cancel, and satisfy all of said bonds at their maturity, and to meet, pay, and satisfy all the accruing interest on said bonds as the same shall become duo and payable according to the tenor thereof, and forever save the said party of the first part harmless therefrom, and also to pay all taxes, charges, or assessments imposed or assessed, or which may be hereafter imposed or assessed, upon the property or premises ot' the party of the first part. ”

Concurrently with tho execution oí this lease, the two companies executed a, joint trust deed upon all the property oí tlie Chicago & Pacific Company to secure the payment of 3,000 $1,000 (i per cent, bonds, all of which, alter being duly executed by both companies, the Milwaukee Company received. The receiver, who had been in possession since the foreclosure suit was commenced, was discharged on Juno 28, 1880, at which time the Milwaukee Company entered into possession of all the leased property, and has ever since continued in possession. This company redeemed the property from [822]*822the foreclosure sale, extended the road to the Mississippi river at Savannah, where it constructed a bridge across the river, secured all necessary terminal facilities, depots and grounds along the line, relaid the road between Chicago and Byron with steel rails, and fully equipped the road with necessary rolling stock, and has ever since operated it as part of its line between Chicago and Omaha, as a first-class railroad. It did not, however, keep that part of its agreement which required it to protect the leased property from all existing valid judgment liens. The money that was paid to redeem from the sale under the decree of foreclosure was accepted by the purchasers.

On the ninth of March, 1876, Horace A. W. Tabor recovered a judgment in this court against the Chicago & Pacific Company for $3,499.78, and on the third of April, 1882, the Third National .Bank of Chicago recovered a judgment in the same court, against the same defendant and others, for $36,165.36; the latter judgment being for money lent to the last-named company before the execution of the lease. On June 25, 1881, the marshal sold the Chicago & Pacific road to Albert Keep for $4,822, on an execution to satisfy the Tabor judgment, and delivered to the purchaser a certificate of sale. Keep, who was president of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company at -the time of the purchase, sold and assigned this certificate to Alexander Mitchell, who then was and still is president of the Milwaukee Company. On the twenty-fifth of ¡September, 1882, the Third National Bank, as a judgment creditor of the Chicago & Pacific Company paid to the marshal $5,304.20 to redeem from the last-named sale, and Mitchell accepted the money, and receipted for it. The bank was proceeding to enforce its supposed rights as a junior creditor, under the laws of Illinois, by a sale of the property, when this suit was commenced, in October, 1882, and the sale and further proceedings wore temporarily enjoined on the authority of Hammock v. Loan & Trust Co., 105 U. S. 77, which, it was assumed, held that the property and franchises of a railroad company could not be sold on an execution to satisfy a judgment at law. The bank filed its 'answer and cross-bill. After reciting the facts, the cross-bill prayed that the bank’s judgment, and the amount paid to redeem from the sale under the Tabor judgment, be decreed to be a lien upon the property of the Chicago & Pacific Company; that the court take possession of all such property, operate it by a receiver, and, out of the earnings, pay the amount due the bank. Testimony was taken, and the case is now before the court pn final hearing.

The Tabor judgment was taken, in this court before the foreclosure suit was commenced, and it was a valid lien upon the property of the Chicago & Pacific Company, within the meaning of the lease, when that property was surrendered to the Milwaukee Company. It was necessary to redeem from the foreclosure sale, and thus get rid of the lien of the trust deed executed in 1872, and the decree foreclosing it, before executing the lease and the joint bonds, and the [823]*823trust deed to secure them.

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Related

Hammock v. Loan & Trust Co.
105 U.S. 77 (Supreme Court, 1882)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
26 F. 820, 1886 U.S. App. LEXIS 2011, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-p-r-v-third-nat-bank-of-chicago-uscirct-1886.