Opinion of the Court.

relation to property respecting which there had been unlawful or fraudulent transactions between the parties will be dealt with by the courts on its own merits. If the new contract be fair and lawful, and the new consideration be valid and adequate, it will be enforced. If, however, it be unfair or fraudulent, or the new consideration so inadequate as to import fraud, imposition or undue influence, it will be rescinded and justice done to the parties. Armstrong v. Toler, 11 Wheat. 258; Mc Blair v. Gibbes, 17 How. 232; Brooks v. Martin, 2 Wall. 70; Planter's Bank v. Union Bank, 16 Wall. 483; Railroad Co. v. Durant, 95 U. S. 576.

But in all of those cases the court was careful to distinguish and sever the new contract from the original illegal contract. Whether in the application of this principle some of them do not trench upon the line which separates the cases of contracts invalid in consequence of their illegality from new and subsequent contracts arising out of the accomplishment of the illegal object, is not the subject of inquiry here. The present case does not involve any question of a subsequent and distinct contract, but seeks relief directly from the original fraud, to which the person under whom complainants claim was a contracting party fully sharing in the fraudulent intent.

We do not think that complainants' counsel gives an explanation of the testimony of McWilliams which strengthens their claim to relief. That claim, stated in his own language, is: "That Ferguson placed his property in Dent's hands, to be used in liquidating his debts, and, when this was done, the property, or so much of it as had not been consumed in the payment of debts, was to be restored to Ferguson, and that in the meantime Ferguson was to have enough of the rents to live on."

Such an arrangement, so entirely inconsistent with the absolute conveyance of the property as executed between the parties, has all the features of a fraud upon creditors. It reserves to the grantor the enjoyment of the rents and profits of the property conveyed, to which the creditors have a right of immediate appropriation to their debts, and involves a secret trust for the return to himself of property of which such cred

Syllabus.

itors have the immediate right of sale. The law does not countenance any such transaction, but leaves both parties in the position where they have placed themselves. Lukins v. Aird, 6 Wall. 78.

The district judge is mistaken when he says that "one of the objects of the bill is to prevent the defendants from reaping the lion's share of the benefits of this confessed fraud.” The object of the suit, as clearly and explicitly stated in the bill, is to secure to the complainants the entire benefit of the confessed fraud by having all the property, with all the intermediate rents and profits added, free from all liens and liabilities, returned to them. The real complaint is that Dent, the fraudulent vendee, refused to perform his part of the fraudulent understanding with Ferguson, the fraudulent vendor; and the avowed purpose of the suit is to compel the defendants to perform it. The prayer cannot be granted without overturning established principles of equity.

The decree of the Circuit Court should, therefore, be

Reversed, and the case remanded to that court, with a direotion to dismiss the bill with costs; so ordered.

THOMPSON v. WHITE WATER VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF INDIANA.

No. 26. Argued October 21, 1889. Decided November 4, 1889.

A mortgage by a railroad company, which covers its entire property and also all property appertaining to its road which it might afterwards acquire, is valid as to such after-acquired property; and the bonds issued under it are a prior encumbrance on a part of the chartered line constructed, after the funds realized from the mortgage bonds had been exhausted, out of moneys subsequently furnished by parties who took from the company a special lien upon the rents and profits of the section so constructed with their money.

Statement of the Case.

The doctrine that a vendor not taking security for the price of real estate sold by him holds in equity a lien upon the property for such price has no application to this case.

THIS suit was brought by holders of obligations of the Indiana, Cincinnati and Lafayette Railroad Company, and on behalf of other holders similarly situated, to enforce an alleged lien claimed by them upon earnings of a section of the road of the White Water Valley Railroad Company, against the claim to priority of bondholders secured by an earlier mortgage. The White Water Valley Railroad Company was organized as a corporation in 1865, under the laws of Indiana, with authority to locate, construct and operate a line of railway from Hagerstown, in Wayne County of that State, to the town of Harrison, Dearborn County, on the boundary line between Indiana and Ohio. To raise the necessary means to construct the railway, the company issued its coupon bonds. to the amount of one million of dollars, in sums of one thousand dollars each. They were dated August 1, 1865, and were to mature the 1st of August, 1890, and draw interest at the rate of eight per cent per annum, payable semi-annually. To secure the payment of the principal and interest of these bonds, the company executed to trustees by way of mortgage, a deed bearing date on that day, of its railroad and all the right of way and land occupied thereby, with the superstructure and all property, materials, rights and privileges, then or thereafter appertaining to the road, and the benefit of all contracts with other railroad companies, then existing or thereafter to be made, and all property, rights and interests under the same. The deed contained the usual covenants to execute suitable conveyances for the further assurance of property subsequently acquired and intended to be included in the instrument. The company soon afterwards commenced the construction of the road, and by the 4th of November, 1867, completed that part of it which lies between the towns of Harrison and Cambridge City, leaving the distance from the latter place to Hagerstown -between seven and eight miles - unconstructed. It was then without the requisite means to equip the part of the road completed, or to undertake the construction of the remaining

Statement of the Case.

portion of the road. In this condition it entered into a contract of perpetual lease with the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette Railroad Company, a corporation then in existence, in consideration of which the latter company agreed to furnish all the necessary equipments, material and laborers to operate the line of the road then completed, and to construct and put in good and safe running order for the accommodation of the public that part of the line then uncompleted, that is, the section between Cambridge City and Hagerstown, and to pay to the lessor annually the sum of one hundred and forty thousand dollars in four quarterly payments of thirty-five thousand dollars each. The contract referred to the mortgage of one million of dollars before mentioned, and provided for the payment of the interest thereon out of the rents received, and for the resumption of possession by the lessor if the lessee failed to keep its covenants.

The Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Lafayette Company went into the possession of the property thus leased, and proceeded to have the remaining portion of the line of the road between Cambridge City and Hagerstown constructed. For that purpose the lessee, on the 7th of December, 1867, entered into a contract with Benjamin E. Smith and Henry C. Lord, by which these gentlemen agreed to construct the remaining portion of the line, and the lessee agreed, in consideration of such construction, to issue to them, or to such parties as they might name, obligations of the company to the amount of two hundred and five thousand dollars, divided into shares of one hundred dollars each, which obligations were to be transferable on the books of the company like shares of stock, and the principal thereof was to be irredeemable, but to bear interest at the rate of eight per cent per annum, payable semi-annually. The contract with these parties recited the right of the lessee company to the perpetual use and possession of the railroad from Harrison to Hagerstown, and the right to construct the uncompleted portion of the road, and have the benefit of all donations made for that purpose, and provided that in payment for the construction of the uncompleted portion the lessee was to issue its obligations to the amount of two hundred

Statement of the Case.

Under this

and five thousand dollars, as before mentioned. contract the line of railway between Cambridge City and Hagerstown was completed, and the lessee company remained in its possession from July, 1868, to May 1, 1871, receiving the income thereof, and gave its certificates for the obligations mentioned to Lord and Smith to the amount of two hundred and five thousand dollars. Whilst the work upon this section of the road was in progress it was agreed between the contractors and the lessee company that the holders of the certificates for the obligations should have a perpetual lien upon all the earnings of the line constructed by them, to secure the payment of the semi-annual interest, as stipulated, and on the 23d of April, 1868, such lien was given by resolution of the board of directors of the lessee company. On the 10th of July, 1869, the lessor company and the lessee company united in executing and delivering a mortgage to Smith and Lord upon the section of railroad built by them, in trust to secure the holders of the certificates mentioned. On the 12th of July, 1869, the board of directors of the White Water Valley Railroad Company, by a resolution entered on its records, ratified the contract of lease, and directed its president to execute, or join in the execution of, any writing necessary or proper to give effect to the agreement for the lien on the earnings mentioned. On the first of May, 1871, the two corporations, the lessor and the lessee companies, agreed that the original contract of lease should be cancelled, and that the road of the White Water Valley Railroad Company should be returned to it. In pursuance of such agreement the lease was cancelled, and thereafter the White Water Valley Railroad Company operated the property, receiving its revenue and earnings, amounting, as charged in the bill, to the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. It was agreed between these two companies that in part consideration for the surrender of the road from Hagerstown to Cambridge City the White Water Valley Railroad Company should recognize the priority of the lien of all the holders of the certificates, and should either pay or discharge the interest thereon continuously thereafter, or make other satisfactory arrangements with such holders; or, failing