Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/605

MOORE ». o'fallon. 593 �MooRB and another v. O'Pallon and others.* �[District Court, B. B. Missouri. Maroh 9, 1882.) �1. Courts— .Turisdiction—Bankruptct. �Where the jurisdiction of a United States district court over a cause depends upon the fact that one of the plaintiffs is the assignee of a tiankrupt whose estate is interested in the controversy, the court will cease to have jurisdic- tion if the interest of the estate ceases, and the cause is dismissed as to the assignee. �Motion to Dismiss for Want of Jurisdiction. �The parties to the original bill in this case were James C. Moore and James E. Yeatman, as assignees in bankruptcy of J. O'Fallon and Samuel Hatch, and George W. Hall, Peleg Hall, and Eobert Aull, trustees of Hall & Hall, plaintiffs, and John O'Pallon, James O'Fal- lon, and Anna M. O'Pallon, defendants. The case was dismissed by a supplemental bill as to the assignees of O'Fallon & Hatch. The other material facts are sufficiently stated in the opinion of the court. �Given Campbeil, James Taussig, and George W. Taussig, for plain- tiffs. �E. F. Farrish, for defendants. �Treat, D. J. Many questions are presented worthy of serious dis- cussion, jurisdictional and otherwise. If the court, despite the shift- ing aspect of the case, retains jurisdiction for the purpose of ascer- tainingwhat the present plaintiffs would be, underanycircum stances, entitled to as damages for waste, would involve many difficulties. They became purchasers July 17, 1874, and bought the property as it then stood. They certainly cannot go back of the date of the as- Bignment to them of the original mortgage and have the court inquire as to the prior license granted by the mortgagee to clear the land, and of what was done under that license unrevoked subsequent to the assignment. By this it is meant that the assignees would stand in the same position as their assigner, so far as the subsisting mortgage of the realty and the license granted was concerned, but no further. As Buch assignees they had a demand against James J. O'Fallon, the bankrupt, who was the indorser of the mortgage note, and were com- pelled to realize on their security, or ascertain its value, before they could prove up against the general estate in bankruptcy of James J. �*Reported by B. F. Rex, Esq., of the St. Louis l)ar. V.10,no.6— 38 ��� �