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also Clifton v. Sheldon, 23 How. 481. In the intermediate case of The Rio Grande, 19 Wall. 178, in which material men joining in a libel in rem had severally recovered in the Circuit Court various sums, a motion by them to dismiss the appeal of the owners of the vessel was not sustained, because the motion was "to dismiss the appeal" generally, and not as to those only who had recovered sums insufficient to give this court jurisdiction.

The decisions in cases of salvage illustrate the application of the rule to different states of facts. From a decree on a libel for salvage of a ship and cargo, or of several parcels of goods, belonging to different owners, when the salvage demanded against the whole exceeds the jurisdictional limit, but the amount chargeable on the property of each owner is within it, no appeal lies, either by the salvors or by the owners. Stratton v. Jarvis, 8 Pet. 4; Spear v. Place, 11 How. 522. The reasons for this were summed up by Chief Justice Taney as follows: "The salvage service is entire; but the goods of each owner are liable only for the salvage with which they are charged, and have no common liability for the amounts due from the ship or other portions of the cargo. It is a separate and distinct controversy between himself and the salvors, and not a common and undivided one, for which the property is jointly liable." Shields v. Thomas, 17 How. 3, 6. Because the salvage service is entire, and is the common service of all the salvors acting together, and the salvage awarded is for that service, and the matter in dispute is the amount due the salvors collectively, and it is of no consequence to the owner of the property saved how the money recovered is apportioned among those who have earned it, this court has since decided that the owner of a ship may appeal from a decree against the ship for salvage which exceeds the sum of $5000, although the amount awarded to each salvor is less than that sum. The Connemara, 103 U. S. 754.

Upon like grounds, it was held in the case of The Mamie, 105 U. S. 773, that from a decree dismissing a petition to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress limiting the liability of shipowners, the owner of the vessel might appeal, even if

Opinion of the Court.

the value of the thing surrendered was less than $5000, when the claims against it were for much more than twice that sum in the aggregate, though for only $5000 each; because, as explained in Ex parte Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 106 U. S. 5, the matter in dispute was the owner's right to surrender the vessel, and to be discharged from all further liability, and if that right was established, he had nothing to do with the division of the fund thus created among those having claims against it.

To the same class may perhaps be assigned Rodd v. Heartt, 17 Wall. 354, where the appeal, which the court declined to dismiss, was by many creditors, secured by one mortgage for more than $5000; from a decree in rem, postponing that mortgage to claims of material men upon the vessel; but the report, both of the facts and the opinion, is so brief, that it is difficult to ascertain exactly upon what ground the court proceeded.

In equity, as in admiralty, when the sum sued for is one in which the plaintiffs have a joint and common interest, and the defendant has nothing to do with its distribution among them, the whole sum sued for is the test of the jurisdiction.

The earliest case of that class is Shields v. Thomas, 17 How. 3, in which this court held that an appeal would lie from a decree in equity, ordering a defendant, who had converted to his own use property of an intestate, to pay to the plaintiffs, distributees of the estate, a sum of money exceeding $2000, and apportioning it among them in shares less than that sum. The case was distinguished from those of Oliver v. Alexander and Rich v. Lambert, above cited, upon the following grounds:

"The matter in controversy," said Chief Justice Taney, "was the sum due to the representatives of the deceased collectively; and not the particular sum to which each was entitled, when the amount due was distributed among them, according to the laws of the State. They all claimed under one and the same title. They had a common and undivided interest in the claim; and it was perfectly immaterial to the appellant how it was to be shared among them. He had no

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controversy with either of them on that point; and if there was any difficulty as to the proportions in which they were to share, the dispute was among themselves, and not with him.

"It is like a contract with several to pay a sum of money. It may be that the money, when recovered, is to be divided between them in equal or unequal proportions. Yet, if a controversy arises on the contract, and the sum in dispute upon it exceeds two thousand dollars, an appeal would clearly lie to this court, although the interest of each individual was less than that sum."

To the same class belongs Freeman v. Dawson, 110 U. S. 264, in which the only matter in dispute was the legal title to the whole of a fund of more than $5000, as between a judgment creditor and the grantee in a deed of trust, no question arose of payment to or distribution among the cestuis que trust, and this court therefore took jurisdiction of an appeal by the trustee from a decree in favor of the judgment creditor. In Market Co. v. Hoffman, 101 U. S. 112, in which, upon the bill of a number of occupiers of stalls in a market, a perpetual injunction was granted to restrain the market company from selling the stalls by auction, the reason assigned by this court for entertaining the appeal of the company was that "the case is one of two hundred and six complainants suing jointly, the decree is a single one in favor of them all, and in denial of the right claimed by the company, which is of far greater value than the sum which, by the act of Congress, is the limit below which an appeal is not allowable."

But in equity, as in admiralty, when several persons join in one suit to assert several and distinct interests, and those interests alone are in dispute, the amount of the interest of each is the limit of the appellate jurisdiction.

In Seaver v. Bigelows, 5 Wall. 208, a bill in equity by two judgment creditors for less than $1000 each, against their debtor and a person alleged to have fraudulently obtained possession of a fund of more than $2000 in value, to compel satisfaction of the debts out of that fund, was dismissed, and the plaintiffs appealed. This court dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, Mr. Justice Nelson saying: "The judgment cred

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itors who have joined in this bill have separate and distinct. interests, depending upon separate and distinct judgments. In no event could the sum in dispute of either party exceed the amount of their judgment, which is less than $2000. The bill being dismissed, each fails in obtaining payment of his demands. If it had been sustained, and a decree rendered in their favor, it would only have been for the amount of the judgment of each." "It is true, the litigation involves a common fund, which exceeds the sum of $2000, but neither of the judgment creditors has any interest in it exceeding the amount of his judgment. Hence, to sustain an appeal in this class of cases, where separate and distinct interests are in dispute, of an amount less than the statute requires, and where the joinder of parties is permitted by the mere indulgence of the court, for its convenience, and to save expense, would be giving a privilege to the parties not common to other litigants, and which is forbidden by law."

In that case, indeed, the whole amount of both debts did not exceed $2000. But the opinion, as appears by the reasoning above quoted, and by the reference in it to Oliver v. Alexander and Rich v. Lambert, above cited, was evidently framed to cover two other cases, argued and decided contemporaneously with Seaver v. Bigelows, which do not appear in the official reports, except in this brief note: "Similar decree made for the same reason in the case of Field v. Bigelow, and in one branch of Myers v. Fenn." 5 Wall. 211, note. The opinions of Mr. Justice Nelson in those two cases, remaining on file, and published in the edition of the Lawyers' Coöperative Publishing Company, (Bk. 18, p. 604,) show the following facts: In Field v. Bigelow, the whole amount of debts sued for was more, although each debt was less, than $2000, and Mr. Justice Nelson said, "No one of the three separate and distinct classes of creditors held a judgment exceeding $2000. Neither judgment creditor, therefore, is entitled to an appeal to this court within the statute, as decided in the case of Seaver v. Bigelow." In Myers v. Fenn, the appeal was dismissed, on the authority of Seaver v. Bigelows, as to creditors whose claims were severally less, but not as to those whose claims were severally more, than that sum.

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So in Russell v. Stansell, 105 U. S. 303, where all the lands within a particular district were assessed to pay a decree against the levee board of the district, and the amount assessed to each owner was less than $5000, and a bill filed by them jointly for an injunction against the collection of the assessment was dismissed, it was held that they could not appeal, because, as observed by the Chief Justice, "their object was to relieve each separate owner from the amount for which he personally, or his property, was found to be accountable," and "although the amount due the appellee from the levee district exceeds $5000, his claim on the several owners of property is only for the sum assessed against them respectively." See also Chatfield v. Boyle, 105 U. S. 231; Adams v. Crittenden, 106 U. S. 576.

The same rule has been applied in many recent cases where the appeal has been taken by the party who had been ordered by the decree below to pay several distinct claims amounting together to more than $5000.

In Schwed v. Smith, 106 U. S. 188, property worth more than $5000 having been taken on execution upon a judgment. confessed by the owners in favor of one Heller for more than $5000, subsequent attaching creditors, whose claims were jointly more, but severally less, than that sum, filed a bill in equity against the debtors, Heller and the sheriff, and obtained a decree declaring Heller's judgment void as against the plaintiffs. An appeal by the defendants was dismissed on motion for want of jurisdiction, the Chief Justice saying, "It is impossible to distinguish this case in principle from Seaver v. Bigelows, 5 Wall. 208." "If the decree is several as to the creditors, it is difficult to see why it is not as to their adversaries. The theory is, that, although the proceeding is in form but one suit, its legal effect is the same as though separate suits had been begun on each of the separate causes of action.” "Although the effect of the decree is to deprive Heller in the aggregate of more than $5000, it has been done at the suit of several parties on several claims, who might have sued separately, but whose suits have been joined in one for convenience and to save expense."