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plaintiffs in this case, and is a bar to the action upon the coupons sued on.

The plaintiffs in this case are citizens of the State of Maine. It is sought to bind them by a decree rendered in a proceeding purely in personam in a case in which they were not named as parties, when there was no personal service upon or appearance by them, and when the only pretence of notice to them of the pendency of the suit was a publication addressed to the "unknown holders and owners of bonds and coupons issued by the town of Pana.”

It is contended that, under the statutes of Illinois, parties may be thus brought in and a valid personal decree rendered against them. Whatever may be the effect of such a decree upon citizens of the State of Illinois, this court has held that, as to non-residents, it is absolutely void. Cooper v. Reynolds, 10 Wall. 308; Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 714; Brooklyn v. Insurance Company, 99 id. 362; Empire v. Darlington, 101 id. 87.

In a case decided at the present term it was declared by this court, speaking by Mr. Justice Field, that "the courts of the United States only regard judgments of the State courts establishing personal demands as having validity or importing verity when they have been rendered upon personal citation of the party or upon his voluntary appearance." St. Clair v. Cox, 106 id. 350, 353.

These authorities settle the rule which is conclusive of this question. It would be a reproach to jurisprudence if the rights of citizens of Maine to recover the contents of a chose in action, held and owned by them, could be cut off by a suit in Illinois to which they were not made parties by name, and in which there was no personal service or appearance.

It is insisted by counsel for the plaintiff in error that the decree of the State court recites the fact that the persons made defendants under the designation of "the unknown holders and owners of bonds and coupons issued by the town of Pana,” which includes the defendants in error, appeared in that court, and that they are, therefore, concluded by the decree in the

case.

There is no pretence that there was any appearance in fact

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of the parties referred to. It is sought to conclude them by a loose expression in the decree, which, in our opinion, was clearly not intended to recite their appearance, and is not fairly open to such a construction.

Lastly, it is assigned for error that, in computing the amount due upon the coupons described in the declaration, the court allowed seven per cent interest, the legal rate in New York, where the coupons were payable, instead of six per cent, the legal rate in Illinois, where they were made. There was no error in this. The coupons, after their maturity, bore interest at the rate fixed by the law of the place where they were payable. Gelpcke v. City of Dubuque, 1 Wall. 175. What we have said covers all the assignments of error. We find no error in the record.

Judgment affirmed.

MYERS v. SWANN.

The Circuit Court cannot take jurisdiction of a suit removed from a State court under the third subdivision of sect. 639 of the Revised Statutes, on account of "prejudice or local influence," unless all the necessary parties on one side of the suit are citizens of different States from those on the other.

ERROR to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

The case is stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. Thomas T. Crittenden and Mr. Franklin H. Mackey for the plaintiff in error.

Mr. Samuel F. Phillips for the defendant in error.

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a writ of error brought under the act of March 3, 1875, c. 137, to reverse an order of the Circuit Court remanding a cause removed from a State court under the third subdivision of sect. 639 of the Revised Statutes, on account of "prejudice or local influence." At the time the application for removal was made in the State court, the suit was being

prosecuted by citizens of North Carolina, as plaintiffs, against George Myers, then in life, a citizen of New York, and certain other persons, all citizens of North Carolina, to recover the possession of a lot in Wilmington, occupied. by Myers, and to obtain a conveyance of the legal title held by the other defendants. The suit was originally begun on the 19th of May, 1873, against Myers alone, to recover the possession and damages for the detention; but on the 29th of May, 1877, an amended complaint was filed, not changing the action as against him, but bringing in the other defendants, who, it was alleged, held the legal title, and asking for a conveyance from them. Myers alone answered the amended complaint on the 8th of September, 1877, and on the 12th of March, 1878, petitioned for a removal, filing an affidavit to the effect that he had reason to believe, and did believe, that from prejudice or local influence he would not be able to obtain justice in the State court. The State court of original jurisdiction refused to allow a removal; but on appeal to the Supreme Court this was overruled, on the ground that the new defendants were merely nominal parties as trustees, and thereupon the cause was docketed in the Circuit Court of the United States on the 18th of November, 1878. In November, 1879, the Circuit Court, "being of opinion that the action in its present form" could not be maintained in that court, remanded the suit to the State court, and from that order this writ of error was brought.

As the suit was pending in the State court against Myers from 1873 to 1878, his application for removal was too late to secure the benefit of the separable controversy provision in the act of 1875. Such an application should have been made at or before the term at which the cause could be first tried, or rather, as this suit was begun before the act of 1875 was passed, it should have been at or before the term at which the cause could be first tried after that act went into operation. Removal Cases, 100 U. S. 457, 473.

Under the local prejudice act there can be no removal unless all the necessary parties on one side of the suit are citizens. of different States from those on the other. This was decided in Vannevar v. Bryant, 21 Wall. 41. It is not enough that there be a separable controversy between parties having the

necessary citizenship, nor that the principal controversy is between citizens of different States. If there are necessary parties on one side of the suit, citizens of the same State with those on the other, the Circuit Court cannot take jurisdiction.

There is no doubt that in this case the principal controversy is between Myers and the plaintiffs, but the relief that is asked cannot be granted without the presence of all the defendants. The possession of the land is in Myers or his heirs, but the legal title is thought to be in the other defendants. It is true that the other defendants are mere trustees, who may be compelled to convey if they do have the title; but one of the objects of the suit is to get such a conveyance. This part of the relief asked for cannot be had unless the trustee defendants are parties. The record shows that they refused to join as plaintiffs. This implies that they deny the trust and leave the plaintiffs to their remedies. In effect they have put themselves on the record as contending that the conveyance made by their ancestor passed the title to Myers and discharged the trust. This also is claimed by Myers. Consequently it ap pears that, under the ruling in Gardner v. Brown, 21 Wall. 36, the plaintiffs required the presence of the trustee defendants in order to get Myers out of possession even. Without the legal title they could not recover in ejectment against him. The trustee defendants were unwilling to join with the plaintiffs. Therefore the plaintiffs had to make them defendants in order to recover at all. It follows that the trustee defendants were not only not nominal parties, but, if they actually did hold the legal title, as is assumed, necessary parties.

The order remanding the cause was right, and it is

Affirmed.

QUINCY v. COOKE.

The General Assembly of Illinois enacted, March 27, 1869, a statute as follows: "The acts of the city council of the city of Quincy, from June 2, 1868, to August 28, 1868, in ordering an election on the proposition to subscribe $100,000 to the capital stock of the Mississippi and Missouri River Air Line Railroad Company, and the subscription of said stock, and all other acts of said council in connection therewith, are hereby legalized and confirmed." In conformity with the vote of the citizens of Quincy cast at such an election, the council had, by an ordinance of Aug. 7, 1868, subscribed for that amount of said capital stock; but neither the election nor the subscription was authorized by law. After the statute took effect, negotiable coupon bonds were, by virtue of it and the ordinance, issued in the sum of $100,000 to the company by the city, and the latter received therefor an equal amount of said stock. In a suit by A., a bona fide holder of coupons detached from the bonds, — Held, that they are valid obligations of the city.

ERROR to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Illinois.

The case is stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. Carl E. Epler for the plaintiff in error.

Mr. James Grant, Mr. Whit. M. Grant, and Mr. William McFadon for the defendant in error.

MR. JUSTICE HARLAN delivered the opinion of the court. On the seventh day of August, 1868, the city council of Quincy, Illinois, -in conformity with a vote of the people at an election held under the authority of a resolution adopted by that body on the ninth day of June previous, passed an ordinance empowering and directing the mayor to subscribe $100,000, payable in city bonds, to the capital stock of the Mississippi and Missouri River Air Line Railroad Company, a corporation created under the laws of Missouri. The object of the subscription was to aid in the construction of a railroad (lying wholly within the State of Missouri) from West Quincy northwesterly, connecting Quincy with the road of that company. The ordinance made it a condition of the issue and payment of the bonds that there should be expended the sum of $50,000 "in grading, bridging, and tieing the road," commencing at West Quincy, for a distance of twenty-five miles; further, that due guarantees be given, before the bonds were

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