Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/324

 298 OCTOBER TERM, 1907. , Opinion of the Court. 209 U'. S. court the whole ease may be seen; but it may not where all the conflicting interests are not brought out upon the' pleadings by the original part, lea thereto. Story's Eq. Plds. sec. 72." Whether the necessary parties are here or were before the court below involves a consideration of the case in a fourfold aspect: first, as to the agreement; second, as to the decrees of the District and Supreme Court; third, as to the contracts nmde by the mother or those holding under her in consequence of the agreement and the registry of the title which it created; fourth, as to the nature and character of the rights with which the agreement was concerned, and the effect of the relief sought in consequence of the prayer for the annulment of that agreement. The agreement was made between the complainant, her sister Petronila and the mother. Now, although the bill was brought after the mother's death and alleged the existence of' children of the second marriage, who were, of course, en- titled to participate in their mother's estate, neither the estate of the mother nor such children of the second marriage were made parties to the cuse. But either or both the estate and these children were necessary parties to the determination of the rights of the mother under the agreement. It is no answer to say they were not because the property with which the agreement 'was coneernec'[ came from the estate of the first husband, in which the mother and her children of the second marriage had no interest, since such an assumption but dis- regards the nature and character of the title create by the agreement, and therefore presupposes that its validity could be judicially determined in the absence of the parties whose rights were necessarily involved. And this is also true as to the judgments of the District and the Supreme Court of Porto Rico. The mother was not only a party to those judgments but a beneficiary thereof, and the presence of her estate or heirs was essentially necessary to a determination of whether those judgments were the result of fraud, and the nature and

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