Melville Fuller

“ By Equity Rule 47 it is provided that in all cases where it shall appear to the court that persons who might otherwise be deemed necessary or proper parties to the suit cannot be made parties, by reason of their being out of the jurisdiction of the court, or incapable otherwise of being made parties, or because their joinder would oust the jurisdiction as to the parties before it, the court may, in its discretion, proceed in the cause without making such persons parties, and in such case the decree shall be without prejudice to the rights of the absent parties. ”

“ The mortgage of the German Savings Bank was assigned to Lyle, May 2, 1879. The purchase by Lyle for $21,600 was made on or about January 1, 1881. This, therefore, is not the case of a conveyance presently made in consideration of the promise to pay the stipulated price, but of a sale of the equity of redemption, and the bill is, in effect, one to enforce payment of the difference between the total purchase price and the amount which it would have been necessary for the vendors to pay in order to redeem from the mortgages, if they had not sold. ”

“ These sections provided that the vendor of real estate, when all or part of the purchase money remained unpaid after the day fixed for the payment, might file his petition asking the court to require the purchaser to perform his contract or to foreclose and sell his interest in the property, and that the vendee should in such case, for the purpose of foreclosure, be treated as a mortgagor of the property purchased, and his rights be foreclosed in a similar manner. ”

“ We are of opinion, in view of all the facts and circumstances disclosed by the record, and of the concession that the deeds were mortgages, and that John Lyle agreed on January 1, 1881, to pay the Shropshires $21,600 for the land, subject, of course, to the reduction of that amount by the indebtedness of the Shropshires to him, complainants were entitled to maintain a lien upon the property for the balance due them, which the conveyance to George Lyle could not in itself destroy. ”

“ The transaction took the shape of a purchase for a specified sum to be paid within a reasonable time, as no time for payment was definitely fixed, and presumably as soon as the indebtedness to the vendee could be ascertained and applied. The decree is for the balance of the puschase money alone, although under the circumstances an accounting was necessary in arriving at that balance. ”

“ When this bill was filed the conveyance to George Lyle had not been made. What rights may have accrued to him prior to that date are not affected by the decree. The suit was removed into the circuit court of the United States by the defendant John Lyle; and, having done that, he then contended that the court had no jurisdiction, because George Lyle was an indispensable party defendant, and he was a citizen of the same state as complainants. We do not think this will do. ”

“ We have carefully examined the evidence, and are satisfied that the findings of the master (including that rejecting the alleged settlement in January, 1880) ought not to be disturbed, under a proper application of the rule just stated, except in one particular, in respect of which we hold a serious and important error has been committed. ”

“ In equity. Bill by Loretta Shropshire and Alexander C. Shropshire against John Fisher and William Lyle, executors, and Esther Lyle, sole devisee of John Lyle, deceased, to establish and enforce a vendor's lien, and for an accounting. Decree for complainants. 31 Fed. Rep. 694. Reversed and remanded, with direction to enter a decree for complainants for a less amount.
Statement by Mr. Chief Justice FULLER: In 1876 Mrs. Loretta Shropshire owned in her own right 540 acres of land in Iowa, derived from the estate of a former husband, 40 acres of which constituted her homestead. ”