Melville Fuller

“ This was a bill filed in the circuit court of the United States for the district of North Dakota, November 21, 1890, by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company against the county auditors of 12 counties of that state, praying for a decree adjudging certain assessments and taxes levied upon lands in each of said counties to be illegal and void, and a cloud upon complainant's title, and that defendants and each of them be restrained from selling or attempting to sell said lands, or any portion thereof, or issuing any tax certificates therefor. ”

“ This has been done, and we find upon examination that the case comes directly within Walter v. Railroad Co., 147 U.S. 370, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 348.
The record does not show that the amount of the assessments and taxes, forming the subject of the litigation, levied in either or all of the counties, exceeded the sum of $2,000; and even if this had been so as to the aggregate, the defendants could not have been joined in a single suit, and the jurisdiction thus been sustained. ”