Statement of the Case. structed a main line and three branches known as "the Milwaukee Extension," "the Pacific Extension," and "the Muscatine Western." It had at different times executed mortgages, one upon the main line, covering the railway, rolling stock, and franchises held or thereafter to be acquired, securing bonds to the amount of $5,400,000; one subsequent in date upon the Milwaukee extension, securing bonds to the amount of $2,200,000; one later in date, upon the Muscatine Western extension, securing bonds to the amount of $800,000; and one, still later in date, upon the Pacific extension, securing bonds in the sum of $1,800,000; and, finally, one known as the income and equipment mortgage, which was a second mortgage upon the railway and branches, and purporting to be a first mortgage upon the income and upon certain rolling stock not covered by the first mortgages. On the 15th day of May, 1875, Charles L. Frost, as surviving trustee in the "main line" mortgage, filed in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Iowa an original bill against the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway Company, as sole defendant, to foreclose the mortgage on the main line. By amendment the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company was made a party defendant upon an averment that said company were trustees in a mortgage executed subsequent to the plaintiff's mortgage, and praying that “their lien on the income and equipment of said road may be declared subsequent to that of the plaintiffs', and they may be decreed to redeem plaintiffs' mortgage or their equity be barred and foreclosed, and for such other relief as the plaintiffs' case may require." A demurrer to this bill had been filed by the railway company, and, after the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company was added as a party defendant, it joined. in the demurrer. The several trustees in the Milwaukee extension mortgage and the Muscatine extension mortgage likewise filed in the same court foreclosure bills, in which, by amendment, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company was made a party defendant, and as to which the same relief was prayed as that contained in the bill filed by Frost, trustee. Statement of the Case. On June 23, 1875, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, as trustee in the mortgage on the Pacific division and as trustee in the income and equipment mortgage, filed an original bill against the railway company, praying a foreclosure of both of said mortgages. In that portion of the bill that dealt with the income and equipment mortgage it was alleged that said mortgage was a first lien on two engines, known as Nos. 30 and 31, and upon one hundred and thirty box cars, known as the even numbers from 882 to 1140. An answer was filed by the railway company, not traversing or denying the allegations of the bill as respected the mortgage on the Pacific division, but denying that as many equipment or income bonds had been sold as were averred to have been sold. On the 30th of October, 1875, the case came on for hearing, and a final decree was entered, ordering that the property covered by the Pacific division mortgage be sold without appraisement or redemption at public auction, etc., but ordering that "that portion of complainants' bill relating to the income and equipment mortgage, so called, is ordered to be consolidated with the causes pending in this court against said respondent, wherein said Frost, Taylor, and others are respectively complainants." On the same day on which this decree was entered there was filed in the cause wherein Charles L. Frost and others, trustees, were plaintiffs, and the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway Company was defendant, an answer on behalf of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, in which it was admitted that the deed of trust to Frost was a first lien upon the main line and upon the ordinary rolling stock used thereon, not included in the mortgages executed by the company, known as the Pacific, Milwaukee, and Muscatine Western mortgages, and not including also engines Nos. 30 and 31 and box cars Nos. 882 to 1140. On the same day the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company filed a cross-bill against the complainants in the several bills of complaint heretofore mentioned. The prayer of this crossbill was as follows: "Wherefore your orator prays that said several suits be consolidated; that an equitable portion, as Statement of the Case. above shown, be decreed as against all of said parties to be included in said deed of trust, (the income mortgage,) and that the same be properly designated as proper to be sold with said division under said mortgage; and that your orator have a decree declaring its lien upon said two engines 30 and 31 and said 130 box cars, under said mortgage, to be prior and paramount to any held by any of said trustees and parties." The record discloses that on October 30, 1875, the causes were ordered to be consolidated; the defendant railway company withdrew its demurrers, pleas, and answers in the said several causes; and thereupon "said several causes and said consolidated cause came on for final hearing and trial before the court on the several bills of complaint, the amended bill, the several mortgages, and deeds of trust, and the proofs." The decree found the amount remaining due and unpaid on the bonds secured by the main line mortgage, and adjudged the defendant to pay the same within ten days, in default of which payment its equity of redemption was to be forever barred, and W. M. Kaiser was appointed a special master to advertise and sell said main line and its franchises and appurtenant property "without redemption or appraisement,” and it was ordered that James Grant be a special trustee to purchase the property for all holders of bonds secured by the main line mortgage who shall assent to such purchase, and pay their share of the expenses, and he was ordered to convey the property, under the direction of the court or one of its judges, to such corporation as such bondholders might organize, to hold the title thus acquired for the benefit of the whole or such part as should assent thereto. Pending the foreclosure proceedings, a new corporation, called the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway Company, was formed for the purpose of purchasing the several mortgaged properties at the foreclosure sales. On the 22d day of June, 1876, the main line was sold by the master to a committee, who purchased for the benefit of all bondholders, and who directed that a conveyance be made by deed to the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway Company. On the same day the Muscatine western Statement of the Case. extension was sold to the same purchasers, and at their request a deed was made to the said new company. Likewise, on the same day, the Pacific division was sold by the master, named in that decree, and the purchaser, John I. Blair, acting as trustee for the bondholders of the Pacific division, directed that the conveyance should be made to the said new company. The masters making these sales executed deeds of the main line and of the several branches to the said the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway Company, conveying in terms an absolute title to the property described in each deed. The reports of the several sales, accompanied by the deeds executed by the masters, were submitted to the court for approval, as required by the decree, and on July 20, 1876, the Circuit Court judge approved said sales and deeds, and ordered the property to be delivered to said new company as of July 1, 1876. The plan of reorganization provided for the execution of a mortgage of the entire property of the new company to the amount of $6,500,000, and such a mortgage, bearing date 1st of September, 1875, was, on November 9, 1876, executed and delivered to the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company as trustee. It appears that the stock and bonds of the new organization were put upon the market, and have been bought and sold as mercantile securities since their issue in 1876. In February, 1882, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company addressed to the holders of the income and equipment bonds of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway Company, and to Hubbard, Clark and Dawley, attorneys of some of said bonds, a communication, resigning as trustee under the income and equipment mortgage. On April 13, 1883, there was presented to the District Judge of the United States for the Southern District of Iowa a petition of one Lawrence Turnure and others, claiming to be holders of income and equipment bonds of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway Company. The petition alleged the resignation as trustee of the Farmers' Loan Statement of the Case. and Trust Company, asked that Charles E. Simmons should be appointed trustee, and that he should be authorized, as such, to file an "amended and supplemental cross-bill in the nature of a bill of revivor and supplement," and that he be permitted to bring in new parties in accordance with such amended and supplemental cross-bill. On this petition an order was endorsed by the judge, appointing Simmons trustee and giving him leave to file his cross-bill in the nature of a bill of revivor and supplement, "subject to the right of all parties interested to move the vacation of this order after process to or appearance of the defendants." On the following day the cross-bill of Charles E. Simmons, as trustee succeeding the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, was filed against Frederick Taylor, as successor to Charles L. Frost, trustee, the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway Company, the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway Company, and the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company. This cross-bill set up a history of the proceedings, not differing in substantial particulars from the statement herein previously made, but claimed that in no proceeding had there been any adjudication, determination, decree, or order in any manner affecting or determining the rights of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, as trustee under the income and equipment mortgage, or of the bondholders claiming under said mortgage. The cross-bill prayed for an account to be rendered by the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway Company of the earnings of the main line since the said company had had control and management of the same, and prayed for a decree permitting the complainant to redeem the said main line upon payment of the amount bid by the committee of bondholders at the foreclosure sale, less the profits and gains ascertained by the accounting prayed for, and that, upon such redemption, the complainant should be decreed to take the title to said railway, franchises and property free and clear from the trust deed of Frost and the decree of the court in |