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Dissenting Opinion: Brewer, Field, Brown, JJ.

pels its proprietor to employ and superintend the work of these longshoremen. For this work of employment, and superintendence, and for the responsibility for the proper performance of their work, the act says that the proprietor of the elevator shall receive no compensation; he can charge only that which he pays out, the actual cost. I had supposed that no man could be required to render any service to another individual without some compensation.

Again, in the Pinto Case, it appears that Mr. Pinto is the owner of a stationary elevator, built on private grounds. It is not on grounds devoted to a public use, like the right of way of a railroad company. There is nothing to indicate on his part a purpose to dedicate his property to public uses. So far as it is possible to make the business of an elevator a purely private business, he has done so. It will not do to say that the transferring of grain through an elevator is one step in the process of transportation; and that, therefore, they are quasi common carriers, discharging a public duty, and subject to public control. They are not carriers in any proper sense of the term. They may facilitate carriage; so does the boxing and packing of goods for transportation. The engineers, firemen, brakemen, and all the thousands of employés of a railroad company are helping the business of transportation; but are they all common carriers simply because their work tends to facilitate the business of transportation; and may the legislature regulate their wages?

But, as I said, I do not care to enter into any extended discussion of the matter. I believe the time is not distant when the evils resulting from this assumption of a power on the part of government to determine the compensation a man may recieve for the use of his property, or the performance of his personal services, will become so apparent that the courts will hasten to declare that government can prescribe compensation only when it grants a special privilege, as in the creation of a corporation, or when the service which is rendered is a public service, or the property is in fact devoted to a public use.

MR. JUSTICE FIELD and MR. JUSTICE BROWN concur with me in this dissent.

Statement of the Case.

HOYT v. LATHAM.

ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA.

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While it is true that a trustee cannot legally purchase on his own account that which his duty requires him to sell on account of his cestui que trust, nor purchase on account of the cestui que trust that which he sells on his own account, and that the cestui que trust may avoid such a sale even though made without fraud, and without injury to his interests, yet it is also true that such a transaction is not absolutely void in the sense that the purchaser takes no title, and that it may be ratified and affirmed by the cestui que trust, either directly or by acquiescence and silent approval; and, in such case, when he has ample notice of the facts, and waits before taking action to set the sale aside until he can see whether the transaction is like to prove a profitable speculation, he is guilty of laches, which amount to a ratification and approval. Hammond v. Hopkins, ante, 224, cited and followed.

THE Court stated the case as follows:

This was a bill filed by William H. and Edward P. Latham, who are heirs and owners of two-ninths of the estate of their brother Charles F. Latham, against Ashbel H. Barney and his associates to compel an accounting for the proceeds of the sale of an undivided one thirty-seventh interest in certain lands belonging to the estate of the said Latham, and for a decree adjudging the plaintiffs to be the owners of two-ninths of his interest in the unsold lands, and for a conveyance of the same. The suit arose upon the following state of facts:

On the 31st day of October, 1867, a contract was executed between Alfred M. Hoyt, Danford N. Barney, Ashbel H. Barney, Charles F. Latham and five other associates, of the first part, and the Winona and St. Peter Railroad Company of the second part, by which, after reciting that the parties of the first part had loaned and advanced to the corporation large sums of money, and had constructed and equipped 105 miles of its railroad in Minnesota, whereby the corporation had

Statement of the Case.

become indebted to them in a large sum of money, it was provided that certain payments should be made upon that indebtedness by the issue to them of stock and bonds, and that a portion of a Congressional land grant owned by the railroad company should be conveyed in satisfaction of the residue. The land so to be conveyed was as many acres theretofore granted by Congress as the corporation should receive by reason of the construction of such road for a distance of 105 miles westerly from Winona, reserving the right of way and depot grounds. The lands were to be conveyed to the parties of the first part, as they should direct, whenever, and as soon as, the railroad company had obtained title thereto under the acts of Congress. Instead of taking a conveyance of the lands the parties interested elected to take the proceeds of their sales, as they were permitted by the contract to do, and therefore, as they were sold by the railroad company, the proceeds were from time to time paid over to them. The number of acres to which the company was entitled was ascertained by judicial decree to be 514,266 and a fraction.

Charles F. Latham, one of the parties to this contract, and entitled to one thirty-seventh of these lands or their proceeds, died intestate, August 25, 1870, leaving as his only heirs or next of kin nine brothers and sisters, and the children of a deceased sister; and, up to the execution of the agreement hereinafter referred to, his share of such proceeds was deposited in bank to the credit of his estate. One of his sisters had received her share of his estate in advance, and it is conceded that the estate vested in eight brothers and sisters and the children of the deceased sister, each being entitled to an undivided one-ninth of his one thirty-seventh interest. The plaintiffs are two of the brothers, and each became entitled at his death to a one-ninth interest. No legal proceedings were taken for the settlement and distribution of his estate; no administrator was ever appointed, but in accordance with a wish expressed shortly before his death, and for the purpose of saving the expenses of administration, the defendant Ashbel H. Barney took possession of the assets of the estate, and proceeded to distribute them. The estate, exclusive of the inter

Statement of the Case.

est in the land grant, amounted to $177,962.48, and was substantially all personal property. The defendant Barney held an interest of his own in the land grant, as one of the parties who contracted with the railroad company. Shortly after the death of Mr. Latham, two of his sisters and their husbands orally assented to a sale by the defendant Barney of the interest of the estate in the land contract, for the sum of $10,000, he at that time advising them that it was worth no

more.

It does not appear that any of the other heirs were consulted as to this disposition of the interest in the land. Some time prior to the 9th of September, 1871, the defendant Barney entered into an agreement to sell the interest of the estate in these lands for $10,000 to the eight persons, who, with Latham, had by such contract purchased the same from the railroad company, Mr. Barney himself being one of such persons. At or about this time the defendant Barney caused to be prepared a statement of account between himself and the estate, and a release to be signed by each of the heirs. One copy of this statement was prepared for each of the heirs, and one for Mr. Barney, and they were all sent together to each heir to be signed, and after they were signed, one executed copy was sent to each. One of the copies of this statement and release differed from the others in one particular, hereinafter stated, and all but that one read as follows:

"Whereas Charles F. Latham, late of Irvington, county of Westchester, and State of New York, died intestate, leaving a considerable estate, consisting of personal property, to be distributed among his next of kin, the said Latham having survived his wife and parents and leaving no children or representatives of a child;

"And whereas the next of kin of said Latham entitled to participate in the distribution of said estate, for the purpose of saving the delay and expense incident to legal proceedings to effect such distribution, have agreed among themselves as to the division of said estate, and the amount going to and receivable by each of the said next of kin, whether in money, stock, bonds or other property;

Statement of the Case.

"And whereas the persons entitled to participate in such distribution and who have agreed upon the same, are the following."

Here follow the names and residences of the next of kin, a recital of the advancement to one of the sisters, and a release by her of her interest in the estate to her brothers and sisters; releases by each of the heirs to the others of all claim and demand against the estate; a recital that Barney had in his possession certain of the assets and property of the deceased, which he had surrendered and delivered to the next of kin; and an agreement "that the said parties hereto, in consideration of the premises and of the surrender and delivery to the said next of kin of the aforesaid property and assets, have and each of them hath released and each of them do release, and forever discharge the said Ashbel H. Barney of and from all claims, demands, actions and causes of action on account of the said assets and property of the said Charles F. Latham so in his possession or under his control. In witness whereof," etc.

This was signed by all of the heirs, including the plaintiffs, and a schedule was attached "showing the estate of which the late Charles F. Latham died possessed, and the distribution among the next of kin, in the foregoing agreement mentioned." This estate consisted almost wholly of cash, shares in corporations, bonds and coupons, and other personal property, with the following exception: "Int. in W. & St. P. lands, estimated $10,000." Of the eleven releases the one sent to Edward P. Latham accidentally differed from the others in using, instead of the words above cited, the words, "Interest in W. & St. P. land sales, say $10,000." About January 1, 1872, defendant Barney enclosed to each distributee, with the release and a supplemental statement of the assets, not material here, a check for his or her share of the estate, which was received and retained by each.

Plaintiffs in December, 1876, brought this action upon the ground that the foregoing proceedings and the release executed by them did not divest them of their interest in the lands. The Circuit Court rendered a decree in favor of the

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