Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/520

 506 FEDERAL REPORTBB, /;! �new trial, after which the case was taken to tTie circuit and heard there on error. The preparation and trial of > the action covered a wide field of inquiry, and controversy, extending over a period of nearly a quarter of a century, and reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The time^ iabor, an4 expense devoted to the defenee of the action by all the members of the firm.was unusual, and nothing was spared or omitted by them to make it successful, The fee is admitted to be a' large one — probably the largest unconditional and secured one theh ever paid or promised in the state. But we do not think that there is any reasbn on' that aecount to conclude that the contract is fictitious or the mortgage fraudaient. On the contrary, we think the fee, under the circumstances, was reasonable and well earned. �As to the allegation of the bill that the property covered by these mortgages was purchased with the money that the defendant Gris- wold had fraudulently obtained from the treasury of the plaintiff, the evidence tends strongly to establish the truth of it ; but there is no evidence that the mortgagees in either of them had notice of this fact at the date thereof. �The plaintiff is entitled to relief, and, to that end, a decree will be made to the effect that the sale and conveyance of L. & B. of the west half of lots 1, 2, 3, and 4, in block 73, is declared void and annulled, 80 that the plaintiff may sell the same, upon the execution to enf orce its judgment, as though said sale and conveyance had never been made ; that the sale and conveyance to him (i. e., Burnett) of lot 8 in block 10, upon the execution issued to enforce the judgment confessed by Gris- wold in their favor, is also declared void and annulled ; that the mort- gage given to said L. & B. upon said lot 8 and block 18 are declared valid as securities — the former for the sum of $306.25 and the latter for the sum of $3,500; that the mortgage to H., D., and T. upon said block 18, and lots 1, 2, 3, and 4, in block 36, is also declared valid as a security for $10,000; and thfCt, subject to the liens of these respect- ive mortgages, the plaintiff is entitled to a priority of payment out of the proceeds of the sale of said lot 8, block 18, and lots 1, 2, 3, and 4, to secure which the case is referred to the master of this court to take and state an aecount between said mortgagees and the plaintiff, crediting them with interest on their respective debts as per contract, and sums paid for taxes and repaira, if any, and charging them with the payments thereon, and the rents and profits received from the property, if any, and to sell said lots and blocks as upon execution, and apply the proceeds (1) to the payment of the expenses of the reference; (2) to the payment of the debts secured by the several ��� �