Morrison Waite

“ The trust company, by consenting to the decree ordering a sale subject to the back-pay and supply liens, in effect voluntarily abandoned that part of the litigation, and left it to be carried on thereafter between the several claimants and the purchasers alone. Neither the trust company nor those it in equity represents can gain or lose by either a reversal or affirmance of the decree appealed from. ”

“ There is a question involved common to all the intervenors, that is to say, whether back-pay and supply claims of any kind are to be paid by the purchasers; but if that is settled in favor of the claimants it will still have to be determined whether each one of the separate claimants has a claim of that kind. In determining this question each claim will depend on its own facts. A recovery by one claimant will not necessarily involve a recovery by another. ”

“ After that the purchasing bondholders became purchasers of the mortgaged property, and their rights are to be determined accordingly. Neither is it of any importance that in the decree of sale as modified, as well as in that originally entered, a right of appeal by the trust company was expressly reserved. Only parties to a decree can appeal. If a party to the suit is in no manner affected by what is decreed, he cannot be said to be a party to the decree. A reservation of the right to appeal has no effect if there is no decree from which an appeal such as has been reserved will lie. ”