Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/186

WETMOEE V. ST. P. & P. E. 00. 179 �that it was just and right to foreclose the mortgage, and sell the road, for the payaient of those debts. �During this litigation it became apparent to the court that this road had to be sold. They finally entered a decree for the sale. It has been said in the argument that that was a consent, and, therefore, was something of an ex parte pro» ceeding, but the record does not show any such state of the case as that. It shows very elearly that the parties were present, and although there is, in some parts of the record, a preliminary statement that such and such parties were pres- ent in court, and consented to the decree, or submitted a decree which they desired to have entered, the record goes on further to state that the court did not enter that decree, but that it took the paper and entered a decree upon its own con- sideration. It was, therefore, a decree on a full consideration by the court — one which met its approval, upon an examina- tion of the merits — and it ordered the sale. The sale waa had. A part of the original bond holders were, under a spe- cial organization, according to the laws of Minnesota, pur- chasers. That did not settle the controversy or the rights of the parties absolutely. The master who made that sale was required to report it into court. He did report it, and the sale was confirmed. �Now, that sale being confirmed, a deed made by the mas-' ter, property turned over and delivered to the purchasers, those purchasers having reorganized under another corporate name, doubtless a great deal of the stock that they held passed into the hands of other men — certainly the bonds that they issued upon the strength of that new organization, to the extent of $8,000,000, having passed into the hands of other men — these parties now, for the first time, corne into this court and ask that they be permitted to upset ail this trans- action, to do that which they did not seek in the five years of litigation, namely, to be made parties to this suit, and then to be treated in the double aspect of persons who are parties to the suit and having ail the rights of parties from the be- ginuing, and, also, in the aspect of persons who were not ����