HASSALL, TRUSTEE,
v.
WILCOX & OTHERS
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A railroad mortgage trustee who intervened in a foreclosure suit appealed a decree awarding amounts to various creditors claiming liens on the mortgaged property. The Supreme Court held that the trustee had standing to appeal only as to the creditor whose individual recovery exceeded $5,000, since the trustee represented the bondholders' interests and smaller individual claims did not sufficiently affect the bondholders' share of the sale proceeds, whereas the larger claim directly reduced the amount available for distribution to the bondholders.
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Mr. Chief Justice Waite delivered the opinion of the court.
The grounds of the motion to dismiss are:
1. That the appeal is improperly taken in the' name of Hassall, trustee, as it is apparent he has no interest in the decree; and
2. That the amounts involved are not sufficient to give this court jurisdiction.
The controversy is between Hassall, the trustee in a railroad mortgage, who intervened in a suit brought by one of the bondholders for a foreclosure, and certain creditors of the railroad company claiming superior liens on the mortgaged property. • The trustee came into the suit' by agreement, and, with leave of the court, “as a party complainant.” Necessarily, as trustee, he represents all the bondholders, there being no'conflicting interests among them. The demand of each creditor is separate and distinct from all the others. Each claim depends on its own facts, and a recovery by one does not necessarily involve a recovery by any other-. The decree is in favor of each creditor separately. The total amount of all the recoveries is $19,043.45, or thereabouts, but, save the appellee A. W. Wilcox, no one creditor gets more than $5000. The mortgaged property has been sold, and the questions arise upon the distribution of the proceeds in court. The claimants are each severally demanding payment of their respective claims, and the trustee is resisting them all. If the claimants are paid, the trustee gets less for the bondholders. ' If they are defeated, or either of them is,'the amount-going to the bondholders will be correspondingly increased.
It is clear that, ,as to all the creditors whose several decrees do not exceed $5000, this case cannot be distinguished from Farmers Loan & Trust Co. v. Waterman, 106 U. S. 265, and that, so far as those creditors are concerned, the motion to dismiss must be granted. With Wilcox it is different. He has recovered more than $5000. In Waterman’s case the dispute was between the several creditors and the purchasers who bought at the foreclosure sale subject to their liens. It is true the purchasers were-a part of the bondholders, but in the controversy then before us they appeared as purchasers and not as bondholders. The amount for distribution to the bondholders from the proceeds of the sale would be the same whether the creditors succeeded on the appeal or not. In this case, however, the question is between the creditors and the bondholders, as bondholders. If the creditors succeed, the amount realized from the sale will be correspondingly reduced for the purposes of distribution to the bondholders. Hassall stands in the place of the bondholders on the record. Hence it is his duty to do for the bondholders what they would, do for themselves if they were parties instead of himself. His appeal is, therefore, their appeal, and is to be treated as such.
It follows that, as to all the parties except Wilcox, the motion to dismiss the appeal must be granted, but that as to him it must be denied.
The questions arising on the appeal from the decree in favor of Wilcox are not such as ought to be disposed of on a motion to affirm. The motion to that effect is denied.
Dismissed as to all the appellees except Wilcox.
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Citator
Cited By
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Clark v. Paul Gray, Inc., 306 U.S. 583 (U.S. 1939)…t follow here, we think it better practice to dismiss the suit for want of the jurisdictional amount as to all appellees except Paul Gray, Inc. See Rich v. Lambert, 12 How. 347; Ex parte Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., 106 U. S. 5; Hassall v. Wilcox, 115 U. S. 598. Cf. Grosjean v. American Press Co., 297 U. S. 233. [*591] DISCRIMINATION. Apart from appellees’ insistence that the fees are an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce because excessive, the substance of their contention is that the statute…
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Gibson v. Shufeldt, 122 U.S. 27 (U.S. 1887)…aled from a decree ordering thóm to pay various sums to the petitioners respectively, amounting in all to more than $5000, and the appeal was dismissed as to those petitioners whose debts were severally less than that sum.' And in Nassall v. Wilcox, 115 U. S. 598, a similar decision was made upon an appeal by the trustee in a railroad mortgage from a decree in favor of several creditors claiming prior liens. In Fourth National Bank v. Stout, 113 U. S. 684, the court dismissed the appeal of a bank from.a dec…
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Hassall v. Wilcox, 130 U.S. 493 (U.S. 1889)…nt of the receiver’s certificates and before any payment to the bondholders. On the 18th of June, 1885, Hassall, as trustee, appealed to this court from such decree, but the appeal was dismissed as to all the claimants but Wilcox. Hassall v. Wilcox, 115 U. S. 598. Although the statute of Texas under which the superior lien of Wilcox is claimed was passed in 1879, prior to the making of the mortgage in 1882, and. although Wilcox brought his suit and obtained his judgment in the state court prior to the filin…
Authorities Cited
- Farmers' Loan & Tr. Co. v. Waterman, 106 U.S. 265 (U.S. 1882)