United States Trust Co. v. Wabash, St. L. & P. Ry. Co.

42 F. 343, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 2169

Opinion

Shiras, J.

On the 15th day of February, 1879, the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railway Company executed a mortgage on its line of railway, then in course of construction, between Pattensburg, Mo., and Council Bluffs, Iowa. In the following November the named company was consolidated with the Wabash Railway Company, under the title of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company. In June, 1880, the latter company executed a blanket mortgage covering all the property of the consolidated lines to the Central Trust Company of New York, and in 1883 a further mortgage to the Mercantile Trust Company. In the spring of 1884 the consolidated company filed its bill in the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Missouri, at St. Louis, admitting its insolvency, and asking that receivers of the property be appointed to take charge of the property for the protection of all interested therein. To this bill the trustees in the several mortgages were made parties. On the 29th day of May, 1884, the court at St. Louis appointed Solon Humphreys and Thomas E. Tutt receivers according to the prayer of the bill, and they forthwith took possession and control of the entire property of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Company, including that upon the line from Pattensburg to Council Bluffs, which was known as the “Omaha Division of the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific System.” In carrying on the process of disintegration necessary to settle thé rights of the various mortgagees holding liens upon the different lines of railway that had been consolidated to form the Wabash system, bills for the foreclosure of the mortgage executed to the United States Trust Company by the St. Louis, Kansas. City & Northern Rail[345] way Company wore filed in the state district court of Iowa and circuit court in Missouri, which wore each removed into the United States circuit courts for these districts. On the 6th day of January, 1886, the United States Trust Company, the complainant in said bills of foreclosure, applied to the United States circuit court at St. Louis for the surrender to the receiver to be appointed in the foreclosure case in Iowa, by the receivers Humphreys and Tutt, of so much of the property in their possession as was subject to the lien of the mortgage given to complainant. The court at St. Louis granted the order sought, which contained the following:

“Provided that, inasmuch as the rolling stock and equipment properly covered and conveyed by said mortgage has been used indiscriminately with the rolling stock and equipment belonging to other divisions of the railway, and inasmuch as an equitable apportionment of the rolling stock and equipment will be made as hereinafter provided, it is further ordered that for the time being, and until a final distribution and apportionment of the rolling stock is made to the said Omaha Division, Receivers ITumphreys and Tutt shall permit said trustee, or its representatives, or receiver appointed as hereinafter provided, to have the use of such rolling stock and equipment in kind and amount as has been needed in the business of said Omaha .Division during the three months last past. * * * It is further ordered that the matter of the division and equitable apportionment of the roiling stock and equipment between said Omaha Division and said Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railway Oompany be, and the same is hereby, submitted to the courts in which the actions brought by said trustee for the foreclosure of its said mortgage are pending for adjudication and settlement and decree.”

On March 1, 1886, Thomas MoKissock was appointed receiver by this court of the line known as the “Omaha Division,” and possession of this line was delivered to him by Messrs. Humphreys and Tutt, in accordance with the order previously made by the circuit court at St. Louis, includ - ing certain stock as contemplated in that order.

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United States Trust Co. v. Wabash, St. L. & P. Ry. Co., 42 F. 343, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 2169 (circtsdia 1890).

42 F. 343 (United States Trust Co. v. Wabash, St. L. & P. Ry. Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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