The Federal Reporter (Annotated), Volume 172: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and Circuit and District Courts of the United States. October-November, 1909. Page: 21
xv, 1023 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this legislative document.
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WABASH RY. CO. V. COMPTON.
KNAPPEN, District Judge (after stating the facts as above). The
master who conducted the accounting under consideration was select-
ed for that position "on account of his special fitness and experience
in matters of accounting and the matters herein involved." The rec-
ord, including his report, shows that he performed the difficult task
with ability and with painstaking care and fidelity. The opinion of
the judge who passed upon the exceptions submitted in the Circuit
Court shows that careful consideration was there given to the excep-
tions presented. So far as such exceptions are before this court, their
subject-matter has passed the scrutiny of and been overruled by both
the master and the presiding judge below. The matters sought to be
reviewed here involve largely a determination of questions of fact,
depending to a considerable extent upon the credit to be attached to
the various witnesses seen and heard by the master. Under these cir-
cumstances, not only is the correctness of the decree in question pre-
sumed, but this court would not be justified in overturning the deci-
sion of these two courts upon anything less than a demonstration of
plain mistake. Tilghman v. Proctor, 125 U. S. 136, 8 Sup. Ct. 894, 31
L. Ed. 664; Crawford v. Neal, 144 U. S. 585, 596, 12 Sup. Ct. 759,
36 L. Ed. 552; Furrer v. Ferris, 145 U. S. 132, 12 Sup. Ct. 821, 36
L. Ed. 649; Davis v. Schwartz, 155 U. S. 631, 15 Sup. Ct. 237. 39
L. Ed. 289; Ohio Valley Bank v. Mack, 163 Fed. 155, 158, 89 C. C.
A. 605.
There is no controversy here as to the amount of Compton's lien,
nor as to the amount unpaid upon the underlying mortgages, except
as that amount is affected by the application of the results of the ac-
counting with reference to net earnings and the various charges and
credits provided for by the decree. The exceptions argued here will
be separately considered.
1. The most important of the exceptions urged here relates to the
inclusion by the master, in the net earnings apportioned to the Ohio
division, of the sum of $1,413,601, as an addition on account of con-
structive mileage as against actual mileage. To a proper understand-
ing of the question raised by this exception, a brief statement of the
conditions attending the accounting is necessary. The main line of
the Wabash system during the period covered by the accounting ex-
tended from Toledo, Ohio, to St. Louis, Mo. (437 miles); from St.
Louis to Kansas City (277 miles); from Toledo to Hannibal, Mo.
(461 miles); and from Hannibal to Kansas City (199 miles). The
distance from Toledo to the Ohio state line is but 76 miles. This so-
called "Ohio division" was not in fact a division during the period
covered by the accounting. It was simply operated as a part of the
main line from Toledo to Kansas City, by way of St. Louis and Han-
nibal. In 1897, shortly after the appointment of the master, the rail-
way books relating to the operation of the system up to that time
were accidentally destroyed by fire. Neither before nor since the fire
has any separate account been kept by the railroad company of the 76
miles known as the "Ohio division." The master began taking tes-
timony in January, 1898. Obviously, the only defimte information
of value must come from the railroad company. After the taking of
testimony had proceeded about four years, the master prepared, at
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The Federal Reporter (Annotated), Volume 172: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and Circuit and District Courts of the United States. October-November, 1909., legislative document, 1909; Saint Paul, Minnesota. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38218/m1/32/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.