Statement of the Case. thirty per cent. In 1881 the question of the liability of the United States on these claims was referred to the Court of Claims and a judgment was rendered in favor of the Choctaws, which was substantially affirmed by this court, 119 U. S. 1. Congress then made an appropriation of $2,858,798.62 for the payment of that judgment. Before this appropriation was made, and in view of it, the Choctaw council recognized the contract with McKee, and another with Luce, as valid, and appropriated thirty per cent of the amount to be received from Congress under the appropriation to their satisfaction. The council also by the same act appropriated $14,140 as a sum shown to be due to Cochrane for services performed by him in his lifetime. After the passage of the appropriation bill by Congress McKee drew from the Treasury twenty-five per cent of the whole judgment, and Luce five per cent, the two making the thirty per cent. Suits in equity were then commenced against McKee by Lamon, as surviving partner of Black & Lamon; by Gilâllan and others interested with him; by McPherson as executor of Cochrane; and by Mrs. Latrobe as executrix of her husband; setting up their various claims upon the fund. McKee filed a bill of interpleader in the Lamon case, and subsequent proceedings were had in the several suits as set forth in detail in this and the following two cases. They resulted in decrees that one-half of the special fund should be paid to McPherson, as executor of Cochrane, and the other half to Gilfillan and his associates; and that the general fund should be distributed to Cochrane's widow, to Latrobe, and to Lamon, in specified proportions. Lamon was awarded $35,000 and interest for his services and disbursements, and the claims of Lamon and Black, as assignees of the Cochrane contract, and as surviving partners, were disallowed. McPherson, as executor, appealed from so much of the decree as denied him participation in the general fund; Gilfillan and others from the decree distributing the general fund, and from a decree dismissing their cross-bill; McKee from the decree giving a distributive share in the general fund to Latrobe; and Lamon and Black from the decree disallowing their claim. Held, (1) That McPherson had a right of appeal from the decrce excluding him from participation in the distribution of the general fund, although he had accepted payment of his share of the special fund; (2) That the sum awarded to Mrs. Cochrane by the Choctaws was intended as a donation to her, and not as compensation to Cochrane, and that the judgment of the court below to that effect should be sustained; (3) Further holdings were made in regard to the contentions in McKee v. Lamon, post, 317, and McKee v. Latrobe, post, 327, which will be found set forth in the head notes to those cases respectively. THE litigation involved in this and the following cases was originally instituted by a bill filed July 7, 1888, by Ward II. Statement of the Case. Lamon and Chauncy F. Black, survivors of themselves and Jeremiah S. Black, (Black, Lamon & Co.,) against Henry E. McKee, the object of which was to protect and enforce their equitable rights and interest in an appropriation of $2,858,798.62, made by an act of Congress approved June 22, 1888, 25 Stat. 239, c. 503, to carry into effect the decision of this court in the case of the Choctaw Nation against the United States, relating to what is known as the Choctaw net proceeds claim. 119 U. S. 1. Six days after the filing of this bill by Lamon and Black another bill was filed, July 13, by John H. B. Latrobe, against Henry E. McKee and others, for the same general purpose of sharing in the sum recovered by McKee. On July 19, McKee filed a bill of interpleader, which is the subject of the opinion in this case, against a large number of defendants, claiming, under eight or nine different titles, to share in the fund held by him, of which he admitted that they or some of them were entitled to the sum of $161,197.63, which he paid into court. This amount was made up of a general fund of $147,057.63, being five per cent of a commission of thirty per cent, which had been dedicated by the Choctaw Indians to the payment of attorneys and agents in the prosecution of their claims, and which had been received by McKee; and also of a special fund of $14,140, due to the estate of John T. Cochrane, for which a special appropriation had been made by an act of the general council of the Choctaw Nation of February 25, 1888, and which McKee had agreed to pay. The bill prayed that the defendants interplead, and that the court determine to whom the money should be paid. On October 1, 1889, a decree of interpleader was entered, the defendants were enjoined from instituting or prosecuting any suit or action for the recovery of the money paid into the registry of the court by the complainant, and complainant was dismissed as a party to the suit with his costs to be taxed. The decree, however, was made without prejudice to the rights of any of the defendants to institute any action at law or in equity, to recover from the complainant any de VOL. CLIX-20 Statement of the Case. mands which they might have for amounts due from him. over and above the money paid into court. Answers and cross-bills were filed by the several defendants making claims to both funds, and upon a hearing upon pleadings and proofs one-half of the special fund of $14,140 was ordered to be paid to McPherson, executor of the will of John T. Cochrane, and the remaining half to the solicitors of James Gilfillan, John A. Rollings, and the estate of C. D. Maxwell. The general fund was ordered paid to Ellen Cochrane, widow of John T. Cochrane, John H. B. Latrobe, and Ward H. Lamon, in certain specified proportions. The claims asserted by certain other defendants, including a claim of McPherson, executor of Cochrane, to be paid out of the general fund for professional services rendered by Cochrane, was denied, and an appeal allowed in the decree. An appeal was also allowed to Gilfillan, Rollings, and Eastman, administratrix of the estate of C. D. Maxwell, from so much of the decree as awarded the general fund to Ellen Cochrane, John H. B. Latrobe, and Ward II. Lamon, and also from a decree previously rendered sustaining a demurrer to the cross-bill of Rollings, Gilfillan, and Maxwell, and dismissing the same. As to the last decree the appeal was dismissed. Subsequently, as it appears from the certificate of the clerk, of March 1, 1895, the money deposited in court was paid out to the several persons to whom it had been awarded by the above decree. The facts underlying all these cases were substantially as follows: 1. That the Choctaw Nation, having various unsettled claims against the United States, arising out of treaty stipulations, the principal of which was a claim for the net proceeds of certain lands, by resolutions of its legislative council, adopted November 9, 1853, and November 1, 1854, appointed certain citizens of that nation, the principal one of whom was one Pitchlynn, to prosecute such claims, and, in the name of the Choctaw people, "to enter into any and all contracts which in their judgment are or may become necessary and proper, to bring to a final and satisfactory adjustment and Statement of the Case. settlement all claims and demands whatsoever, which the Choctaw Nation or any member thereof has against the government of the United States by treaty or otherwise." 2. Pursuant to this authority, on February 13, 1855, these delegates entered into a contract with John T. Cochrane, in which, after reciting the abandonment of a similar contract that had been made with Albert Pike, and the fact that Cochrane had already been for three years before acting as the agent of the Choctaw Nation in the prosecution of a claim for arrearages of annuities and school moneys, in which he had rendered valuable and most important services, Cochrane bound himself to continue to prosecute all unsettled claims and demands of the Choctaw Nation, and especially a claim arising under the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of September 27, 1830, to the net proceeds of the lands ceded to the United States by that treaty, and to do his utmost to secure payment of said claims and demands, the Choctaws upon their part agreeing to pay him thirty per cent of every and all such sums of money, payable to them, as soon as the same was paid over by the United States. 3. Shortly thereafter Cochrane succeeded in inducing the authorities of the United States to enter into a treaty with the Choctaws, which was concluded June 22, 1855, 11 Stat. 611, by which it was agreed that the claim of the Choctaws for the net proceeds of the lands in question should be submitted for adjudication to the Senate, which body was thus charged with and assumed the functions of an umpire, and on the 9th of March, 1859, made an award in favor of the Choctaws, according to certain principles, and referred the matter to the Secretary of the Interior to state an account showing the amount due to them according to such principles. That official made his report to the Senate on May 8, 1860, certifying that there was due to the Choctaw Nation, under the award of the Senate, the sum of $2,981,247.30, and in 1861 there was paid to the Choctaws on account thereof the sum of $250,000. 4. No progress was made in the further prosecution of their claim from 1861 to 1866, by reason of the alliance of war. Statement of the Case. the Choctaws with the Southern confederacy during the After the close of the war, however, Cochrane procured a treaty to be entered into between the United States and the Choctaw Nation, relieving them of their disabilities. 14 Stat. 769. 5. In 1866, Cochrane was stricken with a mortal illness, and with a view of securing to himself and family some remuneration for the services he had performed in behalf of the Choctaws, proposed to assign to Ward H. Lamon, or to some one in his behalf, all his interest in the contract of February 13, 1855; and verbal arrangements for the accomplishment of that result by the assignment of said contract to Jeremiah S. Black were made before the death of Cochrane. Before his death Cochrane made a will dividing his property equally between his wife Ellen and his sister Mary Magruder, and authorizing John D. McPherson, his executor, to sell, assign, or compromise his claims under his contract with the Choctaws as he should deem most for the interest of his estate. There was also an acknowledgment in this will that an equal interest in the Choctaw contract belonged to Luke Lea. After Cochrane's death, McPherson having qualified as his executor, a contract was entered into between him and Jeremiah S. Black, November 8, 1866, for the further prosecution of the Choctaw claims by Black, as the successor of Cochrane, and upon the terms of the contract made with Cochrane February 13, 1855, to which assignment the Choctaw delegates gave their assent. 6. The firm of Black, Lamon & Co., in whose behalf the assignment to Black was in fact made, at once entered upon and continued the work of prosecuting this claim until Judge Black withdrew from active practice, from which time the duty of prosecuting the claim devolved solely upon Lamon. 7. Nothing, however, was definitely accomplished before July 16, 1870, when, for reasons unnecessary to be here stated, the delegates of the Choctaw Nation entered into a new contract with James G. Blunt and Henry E. McKee to prosecute their claim, stipulating to pay them for their services and expenses thirty per cent of the sum already awarded and due to the Choctaw Nation, or of any sum that might be paid, |