Seattle, L. S. & E. Ry. Co. v. Union Trust Co.

79 F. 179, 24 C.C.A. 512, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 1747
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 8, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 79 F. 179 (Seattle, L. S. & E. Ry. Co. v. Union Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Seattle, L. S. & E. Ry. Co. v. Union Trust Co., 79 F. 179, 24 C.C.A. 512, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 1747 (9th Cir. 1897).

Opinion

ROSS, Circuit Judge.

This was a suit for the foreclosure of a mortgage, executed August 10, 1886, by the appellant, Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway Company, to the appellee, Union Trust Company of ISTew York, in trust, to secure the payment of 5,675 bonds, of the denomination of $1,000 each, payable to the holder or holders thereof on the 1st day of August, 1931, with interest thereon at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, payable semiannually. The bonds had annexed thereto interest coupons for the respective semiannual installments of interest. After the delivery of the bonds, and before the institution of the suit, 117 of the bonds were redeemed and canceled by the railway company, leaving 5,558 outstanding at the time of the commencement of the suit, in the hands of the various parties to whom they had been sold for a valuable consideration. Each of the bonds contains this provision:

“The payment of the principal and interest of this bond, with others of like tenor and same date, not exceeding, in all, twenty-five thousand dollars per mile of railroad and branches authorized by the articles of incorporation or charter of the company, is secured by a mortgage or deed of trust duly made by the said railway company to the Union Trust Company of New York, trus[180]*180tee for the holders of all said bonds, which shall be the first mortgage and paramount lien upon the entire of said lines of railroad and branches, constructed or to he constructed, with the appurtenances, rights, and branches, and upon all the property and rights of property of the said railroad company now held and which may be acquired.”

To secure the payment of the bonds, all of which were duly authorized and executed by the railway company, the company at the same time duly executed to the trust company a mortgage upon its property, in which the property mortgaged is thus described:

“All and singular the said lines of railroads and branches of the said party of the first part now being and to be constructed in the territory of Washington, and hereafter to be constructed in tbe territories of Idaho, Montana, and Dakota, and extending- from a point on Puget Sound at the city of Seattle, King county, Washington territory, to a point on the eastern boundary line of said last-named territory in the vicinity of Lewiston, in Idaho territory, and thence in a general easterly direction, through the territories of Idaho, Montana, and Dakota, to a point at or near Deadwood, in said Dakota territory; and also a line of railroad from a point on said above-described line east of tbe Cascade Mountains to tbe city of Spokane Palls, and thence to some point on the eastern boundary line of said Washington territory; and also such branch railroads, from such convenient points on said above-described lines of railroad, to such points, either north or south of said lines of railroad, as said railway company may hereafter determine; and all the lands, tenements, and hereditaments acquired or appropriated, or which may or shall hereafter be acquired or appropriated, for the purpose of a right of way for said lines of railroad and branches; and all the easements, right's, liberties, franchises, privileges, immunities, and exemptions of the said party of the first part appertaining to the construction, maintaining, operating, owning, and enjoying cf said lines of railroad and branches, and every part thereof; and all railroad tracks, railways, ways, and rights of way, depot grounds, bridges, viaducts, culverts, fences, and other structures, depots, station grounds, station houses, engine houses, car houses, fuel houses, ware houses, shops, machine houses, water tanks, turntables, superstructure, erections, fixtures, rolling stock, furniture, tools, implements, appendages, and appurtenances, used or intended to be used in connection with said lines of railroad and branches in any manner whatsoever; and all and singular the tenements, hereditaments, appendages, and appurtenances thereunto belonging, whether now owned or acquired, or hereafter at any time to be owned or acquired, by the said party of the first part, together with ail and singular the rents, tolls, income, issues, and profits of the said lines of railroad and branches, premises and property; and also all the estate, right, title, interest, property, claim, and demand whatsoever, as well in law as in equity, and present and prospective, of the said party of the first part in and to the same and every part thereof.”

The mortgage also provided that the railway company should pay into a sinking fund, created by the terms of the mortgage, annually, after August 1, 1891, an amount equal to 1 per cent, upon the aggregate of the principal of all of the company’s outstanding bonds. It also contained a covenant to the effect that the railway company, whenever requested by the trust company, should execute to the trust company such further deed and assurance for the better assuring to the trustee the said lines of railroad and branches, premises, property, appurtenances, rights, privileges, immunities, and franchises mentioned, and thereby “conveyed, or meant or intended so to be, whether now owned, acquired, or held, or hereafter to be acquired or possessed by it,” as the trustee or its counsel should reasonably advise or require. The mortgage also contained this covenant:

“In ease default shall be made at any time in tbe payment of any installment of interest on any of the bonds hereby secured, tbe payment thereof having [181]*181boon duly demanded, and the coupons therefor having been duly presented at Jlie time and place named therefor, and if any such default shall continue for the period of six months, then and in such case the principal of all said bonds shall, at the election of the trustee, become and be immediately due or payable, anything in the said bond or herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding; but a majority in interest of the holders of all said bonds then outstanding, unpaid or unredeemed, may in writing instruct The trustee in any such case to declare the said principal to bo due, or to waive the right so to declare, on such terms and conditions rs such majority shall deem proper, and may annul or reverse the election of the trustee; provided, ihat.no waiver by the trustee or the bondholders shall extend to or be taken to affect any ease of subsequent default, or to impair the rights resulting therefrom.”

Tlie record shows that in July, 1893, in anticipation of default in the x>ayment of the interest upon the bonds maturing August i, 1893, an agreement was prepared providing for the appointment of a committee of the bondholders, to consist of James 1). Smith, H. O. Armour. Edward D. Christian, Morton S. Patou, and a fifth person to be chosen by them, authorizing such committee to institute and conduct such suits and actions and take such proceedings as to it should seem advisable and proper for the protection and enforcement of the rights of the bondholders, of which committee Morton S. Patou was selected chairman. Subsequently that agreement was signed by the owners and holders of 4,072 of the bonds, being more than five-sixths of the entire issue. On the 16th day of November, 1893, Patou, as such chairman, addressed to the trustee this letter;

“Seattle, Hake Shore & Eastern Railway Company, 80 Broadway, Room 145.
> “New York, November 16, 1894.
“Union Trust Company of New York, Trustee, 80 Broadway, New York, N.

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Bluebook (online)
79 F. 179, 24 C.C.A. 512, 1897 U.S. App. LEXIS 1747, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/seattle-l-s-e-ry-co-v-union-trust-co-ca9-1897.