be occasioned, were fully alleged. Valdes and the firm of Nevers & Callaghan and the individual members of that firm were made defendants. The prayer was for the appointment of a receiver and with power to carry on the business of the Central, with power for that purpose to contract for cane for the coming season, with authority to issue receiver's certificates for the purpose of borrowing the money which might be required. The judge being about to leave Porto Rico for a brief period, declined to appoint a permanent receiver, but named a temporary one to keep the property together until a further hearing could be had, interference in the meanwhile with the custodian being enjoined. Shortly thereafter creditors of the corporation intervened and joined in the prayer made by both of the complainants for the appointment of a receiver. In July the two suits were by order consolidated and after a hearing a receiver was appointed and authority given him to continue the property as a going concern and to borrow a limited amount of money on receiver's certificates if necessary to secure contracts for cane for the coming crop season. The execution of the Nevers & Callaghan judgment was stayed pending an appeal which had been taken to this court. The only difference which seems to have arisen concerning the appointment of the receiver grew out of the fact that a prayer of the Central Altagracia, asking the court to appoint as receiver Mr. Pettingill, a member of the bar and one of the counsel of the corporation, and who was also its treasurer, was denied. Despite this, the fair inference is that the ultimate action of the court was not objected to by anyone, because of the hope that the result of a successful operation of the plant during the coming crop season might ameliorate the affairs of the corporation and thus prevent further controversies. We say this, not only because of the conduct of the parties prior to the order appointing the receiver, but because Opinion of the Court. 225 U.S. after that order the solicitors of the Altagracia Company and Valdes put a stipulation of record that until the following October no steps whatever should be taken in the proceedings, and not even then unless the attorneys for both parties should be in Porto Rico. The hope of a beneficial result from the operation of the plant by the receiver proved delusive. As a result of such operation there was a considerable loss represented by outstanding receiver's certificates, with no means of paying except out of the property. Obviously, for this reason, the record contains a statement that on July 12, 1909, a conference was had between the court and all parties concerned to determine what steps should be taken to meet the situation. It appears that at that conference the counsel representing the heirs of Sanchez and of Nevers & Callaghan stated their opposition to a continuance of the receivership. On July 17, 1909, the court placed a memorandum on the files indicating its purpose to bring the litigation, receivership, etc., to an end and to cause "immediate issue to be raised on the pleadings for that purpose." This memorandum was entitled in all the pending causes concerning the property. It directed that demurrers which had been filed in the consolidated cause of Valdes against the corporation and of the corporation against Valdes be overruled, and the defendants were required to answer on or before Monday, July 26, in order that upon the following day, the twenty-seventh of July, the issues raised might be tried before the court without the intervention of a master. It was provided in the order, however, that nothing in this direction should prevent the parties from filing such additional pleadings as it is deemed necessary for the protection of their rights by way of cross bill or amendment, etc. To make the order efficacious it was declared that nothing would be done in the suit of the heirs of Sanchez against Castello and the Altagracia 225 U.S. Opinion of the Court. which was pending on appeal, and that a demurrer filed to the suit of Castello against the Central would be overruled; that the demurrer in the suit at law of Valdes would remain in abeyance to await the final action of the court on the trial of all the issues in the equity causes and that a stay of the Nevers & Callaghan execution would be also disposed of when the equity cases came to be decided. This order was followed by a memorandum opinion filed on July the 21st stating very fully the position of the respective suits, the necessity for action in order to preserve the property from waste and reiterating the view that whatever might be the rights of the Central Altagracia or of Valdes under the lease, those rights would be subordinate to the ultimate determination of the suit brought by the heirs of Sanchez. To the action of the court, as above stated, no objection appears to have been made. On the contrary, between the time of that order and the period fixed for the commencement of a hearing the Central Altagracia, Valdes and Nevers & Callaghan modified their pleadings to the extent deemed by them necessary to present for trial the issues upon which they relied. In the case of the Central Altagracia this was done by filing on July 22 an amended bill of complaint in its suit against Valdes and on July 26 its answer in the suit of Valdes. The acceptance by Valdes of the terms of the order was shown by an answer filed to the bill in the suit of the company and the cross bill in the same cause; and Nevers & Callaghan manifested their acquiescence by obtaining leave to make themselves parties and asserting their rights by cross bill and answers, which it is unnecessary to detail. When the consolidated cause was called for trial on the morning of July 27, the counsel for the Central Altagracia moved a continuance in order to take the testimony of certain witnesses in Philadelphia and New York for the purpose of proving some of the allegations of the complaint as to the wrongdoing of Valdes in administering the affairs of the corporation. This application was supported by the affidavit of Mr. Pettingill, the counsel of the corporation. The record states that the request for continuance was opposed by all the other counsel, and the application was denied. In doing so the court stated "that the matter has been pending for more than a year and that counsel had full notice of the court's intention to press the matter to issue and trial and that it is not disposed to delay matters at this time when the admissions of the pleadings are so broad that the proofs available here in Porto Rico are probably sufficient and the amended complaint already on file in suit No. 565-Valdes v. The Altagracia Company-and the answer thereto and the answer recently filed in suit No. 564-Altagracia Company v. Valdes-as well as the cross bill also recently filed in suit No. 465 makes so many allegations and admissions as that the real issue between the parties can be plainly seen and that, in the opinion of the court, enough proof is available here in Porto Rico." The court thereupon declared that the Altagracia Company might by the next day, if it so desired, file exceptions to the answer in suit 565 and an answer to the cross complaint, indeed-that the corporation might, if it wished, treat them as filed and proceed with the cause and file them at any convenient time thereafter. Thereupon the record states: “Said counsel for the Central Altagracia stated that he desired time to file exceptions to the answer and an answer to the cross bill in suit No. 565; and the court granted until the morning of July 28 for such purpose. Later in the day of July 27, one of the counsel for Valdes having requested the court to postpone the hearing of the cause until the morning of the 29th, because of an unexpected professional engagement elsewhere, the request was communicated by the court to the other counsel in the cause. Thereupon the record again recites, "Messrs. Pettingill & Cornwell, attorneys for the Central Altagracia, stated that they withdrew any statement they have hitherto made in the cause in that regard and desired to be understood that they would not except to the answer in suit No. 565 or plead or answer to the cross bill therein save and except within the time which they contended the rules governing this court of equity gave them and would stand upon what they considered their rights in that regard." When the court assembled the next day, on the morning of the 28th, a statement concerning the occurrence of the previous day as to the continuance, etc., just reviewed, was read by the court in the presence of all the counsel, whereupon the record recites, "N. B. Pettingill, counsel for the Central Altagracia, in response to the same stated that he objected to proceeding to take any evidence in any of the causes at that time or the testimony of any witnesses because the same was not at issue or in condition for the taking of evidence and objected to the taking of such evidence until the issues of said causes are made up in accordance with the rules of practice applicable to equity causes." The record further recites, "which objection was overruled by the court on the ground that the action called for thereby is not necessary. That the bill was amended within three days; an answer was immediately filed to it and a cross bill also filed, the said cross bill making only the same claims as were made in suit No. 563 at law, and that any way the issue could be tried on the bill and answer in both suits. This ruling of the court having been excepted to the trial proceeded from day to day, the counsel for the Central Altagracia taking no part in the same and virtually treating the proceedings as though they did not concern that corporation. In substance, the court decided: First, that as the result of the contracts between Valdes and the Central Altagracia, he was not the owner of the rights of that corporation under the lease, or of the machinery which |