meaning and effect the whole situation, as it could be and doubtless was seen by the court, must be kept in view. The property had been in the possession of the court and managed

said lien, or the successors in the title of said purchaser or purchasers shall pay to said James Compton or his solicitors herein, within ten days after the entry of the decree herein in favor of said James Compton, the sum of three hundred and thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and twenty dollars and forty cents, with interest thereon at six per cent per annum from May 1, 1888, being the amount found due on the equipment bonds by him owned, by the Supreme Court of Ohio, in his said suit, upon the surrender by him of the bonds and coupons owned by him, referred to in his petition in such suit; and in default of such payment this court shall resume possession of the property covered and affected by the said lien of the defendant James Compton, and enforce such decree as it may render herein in his favor by a resale of such property or otherwise, as this court may direct.

And it is further ordered and adjudged, that notwithstanding the entry of this decree the said issue concerning the claim and interest of said Compton shall proceed to a final determination and decree in accordance with the rules and practice of this court, and any decree rendered thereupon shall bind the purchaser or purchasers at any sale or sales had hereunder, and all persons and corporations deriving any title to or interest in said property affected by such lien from or through them or any of them, and nothing in this decree contained shall be construed as an adjudication of any matter or thing as against the said James Compton, or to prejudice, annul or abridge any right, claim, interest or lien which the said James Compton may have in, to or upon the premises hereby directed to be sold or any part thereof, or in, to or upon any property whatsoever embraced in this decree; it being the intention to hereby preserve the rights of said Compton in the relation in which he now stands towards the mortgagees parties hereto.

Any sale, conveyance or assignment of the railway and property hereinabove described made under this decree shall not have the effect of discharging any part of said property from the payment or contribution to the payment of claims or demands chargeable against the same, whether for costs and expenses, the expenses of the receivership of said property and the full payment of all the debts and liabilities of the receivers of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company, namely, Solon Humphreys and Thomas E. Tutt, Thomas M. Cooley and Gen. John McNulta, or upon intervening claims allowed or to be allowed, or upon any other claims or allowances that have been or may hereafter be charged against the property of the Wabash St Louis and Pacific Railway Company, or any part thereof, or said receivers or either of them, or the adjustment of any equities arising out of the same between the parties hereto, or their successors, either by this court or by the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Missouri, or by any United States Circuit Court exercising either original or ancillary jurisdiction over said property of the Wabash, St. Louis

through its receiver for five years. It was desirable that it should pass into the hands of responsible owners, freed, as far

and Pacific Railway Company, or any part thereof, or by any United States Circuit Court to which any of the parties in the consolidated cause of the Central Trust Company of New York and others against the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company and others in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Missouri, including the receivers, have been by the said Circuit Court of the United States remitted in proceedings or actions ancillary to the jurisdiction of said last-named court or otherwise.

Nor shall any such sale, conveyance, transfer or assignment made under and pursuant to this decree withdraw any of said railroad property or interests to be sold under this decree as herein before directed from the jurisdiction of this and the other courts aforesaid, but the same shall remain in the custody of the receiver until such time as the court shall on motion direct said property in whole or from time to time in part to be released to the purchaser or purchasers thereof or any of them, and shall afterwards be subject to be retaken and, if necessary, resold if the sum so charged or to be charged against said property or any part thereof or said receivers as aforesaid shall not be paid within a reasonable time after being required by order of this or said other courts.

The conveyance and transfer of said property sold under this decree shall be subject to the powers and jurisdiction of the said courts and the purchasers of the property sold under this decree or any part thereof, and the parties hereto or their successors shall thereby become and remain subject to said jurisdiction of said courts so far as necessary to the enforcement of this provision of this decree, and such jurisdiction shall continue until all the claims and demands that have been or may be allowed against said property of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway Company or any part thereof, or said receivers, by order of said courts shall be fully paid and discharged.

The provisions aforesaid shall apply to the purchasers of the same under this decree, and all persons taking such property through or under them, but the foregoing provisions shall not nor shall any reservation in this decree contained have the effect or be construed, nor are they or any of them intended to give to any claims that may exist any validity, character or status superior to what they now have, nor to decide or imply that any such claims exist.

The effect of said provisions and reservations shall be to prevent this decree operating as an additional defense to claims, if any there are, prior in right to the liens of the mortgages upon said property heretofore and hereby foreclosed and to preserve the prior right and lien of such claims and all allowances if found and decreed to exist.

And the court reserves the right to make such further order and direction at the foot of this decree as may seem proper.

as possible, from all prior liens and incumbrances. The question whether Compton had a lien and right of sale to satisfy it was unsettled, and would naturally be so for some time to come. He was a party to the suit. Many other holders of the equipment bonds, whose primary rights were like his, were seeking in the Ohio courts to obtain the same judgment which had there been awarded to him. None of them were parties to the suit in the United States courts, but their claims and the relief which the state court might give them could not be overlooked by a discerning court or a prudent purchaser. These facts and the considerations which arose out of themcalled upon the court to continue its grasp upon the property and its control of exclusive jurisdiction over it, both for the sake of those who had just claims upon it and for the sake of those who might purchase under the decree. A sale could not properly or safely be made upon any other conditions. The decree reserves: 1. All questions arising under the pleadings and proceedings for further adjudications. 2. The rights of Compton, which, when determined, may be enforced, after a resumption of possession by the court, by a resale of the property or otherwise. 3. The costs, expenses, debts and liabilities of the receivers, which are made a charge upon the property, to be enforced by a retaking and sale of the property. All the foregoing reservations are clearly and unmistakably made, the purchasers are warned that they must take title subject to the rights thereafter to be ascertained, to which the reservations relate, and the jurisdiction of the court over the questions and the right of the court to retake and resell the property is in terms preserved. Moreover, we are of the opinion that the decree, fairly interpreted in the light of the circumstances, made a still broader reservation. It is ordered that any sale of the railway and property

shall not have the effect of discharging any part of said property from the payment, or contribution to the payment, upon intervening claims allowed, or to be allowed, or upon any other claims or allowances that have been, or may hereafter

be, charged against the property;" and that the "jurisdiction shall continue until all the claims and demands that have been or may be allowed against said property shall be fully paid;" and that the reservations shall not have the effect "to give to any claims that may exist any validity, character or status superior to what they now have, nor to decide or imply that any such claims exist;" and that "The effect of said provisions and reservations shall be to prevent this decree operating as an additional defense to claims, if any there are, prior in right to the liens of the mortgages upon said property heretofore and hereby foreclosed, and to preserve the prior right and lien of such claims and all allowances if found and decreed to exist." This sweeping language, colored as it is by the last paragraph quoted, with its reference to claims which are liens prior in right to the mortgages, must be held to include claims under the equipment bonds. Such a reservation would be natural, in view of the facts that the rights under the equipment bonds were uncertain, and their holders no parties to the suit, and therefore not affected by the foreclosure. Wiswall v. Sampson, 14 How. 52, 67; United Lines Tel. Co. v. Boston Trust Co., 147 U. S. 431, 448; Pittsburg &c. Railway v. Loan & Trust Co., 172 U. S. 493, 515. The effect of the decree is to say to any purchaser under it, you must take this property subject to all claims which this court shall hereafter adjudge to be lawful, and you may be assured that you will be held to pay none other, and for the purpose of making this statement good the court reserves jurisdiction over the property and claims in respect to it, and the right to take it again into possession and exercise again the power of sale. It is obvious, therefore, that the court has parted with the possession of the property only conditionally, and that it has preserved complete control over it, and full jurisdiction over the claims which might be made against it. We may now consider the question whether the state court had the jurisdiction to render the judgment in the case at bar, as and when it was rendered.

When a court of competent jurisdiction has, by appropriate proceedings, taken property into its possession through its officers, the property is thereby withdrawn from the jurisdiction of all other courts. The latter courts, though of concurrent jurisdiction, are without power to render any judgment which invades or disturbs the possession of the property while it is in the custody of the court which has seized it. For the purpose of avoiding injustice which otherwise might result, a court during the continuance of its possession has, as incident thereto and as ancillary to the suit in which the possession was acquired, jurisdiction to hear and determine all questions respecting the title, the possession or the control of the property. In the courts of the United States this incidental and ancillary jurisdiction exists, although in the subordinate suit there is no jurisdiction arising out of diversity of citizenship or the nature of the controversy. Those principles are of general application and not peculiar to the relations of the courts of the United States to the courts of the States; they are, however, of especial importance with respect to the relations of those courts, which exercise independent jurisdiction in the same territory, often over the same property, persons, and controversies; they are not based upon any supposed superiority of one court over the others, but serve to prevent a conflict over the possession of property, which would be unseemly and subversive of justice; and have been applied by this court in many cases, some of which are cited, sometimes in favor of the jurisdiction of the courts of the States and sometimes in favor of the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, but always, it is believed, impartially and with a spirit of respect for the just authority of the States of the Union. Hagan v Lucas, 10 Pet. 400; Williams v. Benedict, 8 How. 107; Wiswall v. Sampson, 14 How. 52; Peale v. Phipps, 14 How. 368; Pulliam v. Osborne, 17 How. 471; Taylor v. Carryl, 20 How. 583; Freeman v. Howe, 24 How. 450; Buck v. Colbath, 3 Wall. 334; Yonley v. Lavender, 21 Wall. 276; People's Bank v. Calhoun, 102 U. S. 256; Barton v. Barbour, 104 U. S. 126; Krippen