Hill v. United States (50 U.S. 386)

The bill must therefore be dismissed.

THIS case came up from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Mississippi, upon a certificate of division in opinion between the judges thereof.

It was a bill filed on the equity side of the court, by Hill and the other complainants, against the United States, the Mississippi and Alabama Railroad Company, William M. Gwin, and William H. Shelton, to enjoin a judgment obtained against the complainants by the United States.

The circumstances were these.

In 1835, the receiver of public moneys for the Choctaw district in the State of Mississippi was found to be in debt to the government.

On the 26th of September, 1835, the Solicitor of the Treasury issued a distress warrant, under the act of May, 1820, for the purpose of collecting the debt, and inclosed it to William M. Gwin, then Marshal of the United States for the State of Mississippi.

The history of the transaction between 1835 and 1839 need not be stated.

In 1839, the marshal, by direction of the Solicitor and Secretary of the Treasury, received from the representative of the debtor (who was then dead) the sum of $30,000 in the notes of the Mississippi and Alabama Railroad Company, as collateral security for the debt, for the collection of which he had a distress warrant. The Railroad Company, in order to avoid a suit upon its notes, transferred to the District Attorney upwards of $78,000 of bills receivable of the bank. Amongst these bills receivable was a promissory note for four thousand dollars, dated on the 12th of April, 1838, payable six months after date to the Mississippi and Alabama Railroad Company, negotiable and payable at their banking-house in Brandon, and signed by William J. Hill, J. S. Rowland, D. M. Porter, and W. F. Walker. The note was joint and several; Hill was the principal, and the others sureties.