_   . imprint;. BEPORTE1:.
were Lennox and James S. French, the president, individually, made-
defendants. On the third of April, the city ofrWashington filed ae
cross-bill in the same suit asking alhrmative relief. On the twenty-
fifth of,May, 1859, the circuit court of Alexandria county made a de-
cree iu the suit thus described, containing, among others, the follow-
ing clauses:
"The court doth adjudge, order, and decree that the certificate of acknowl-
edgment to the deed of trust from the Alexandria 8c Washington Railroad
Company to I. Louis Kinzer, dated on the thirty-first of December, 1856, and
filed in this cause, not being in conformity with the statute of Virginia in
such case made and provided, the said deed was illegally admitted to record,
and that the said deed from the Alexander & Washington Railroad Company
· to Joseph H. and Thomas A. Bradley, dated on the tenth day of July, 1857.
V and recorded on the twenty-third day of July, 1857, having been recorded
A according to law, created a lion in favor of said city of Washington upon the
property and works of the said Alexandria & Washington Company, para-
mount to the lien created by the said deed of trust to the said I. Louis Kinzer,
etc. And the court doth further adjudge, order, and decree that the said
Fowle, Snowden Sv Co. recover against the said Alexandria & Washington
Company the sum of $16,481.35, with interest, costs," etc.
The Hrst day of the term, at which this decree was rendered, was
the sixteenth .of May, 1859. From this decree appeal was taken by _
Fowle, Snowdon & Co., to the supreme court of Appeals of Virginia, in
the petition for which there were assigned, among others, as grounds
of error: I1) that the Kinzer deed was properly admitted to record;
(2) that the Bradley deeds were invalid, because there was no express
provision of law authorizing Washington city to guarantee the Alex-
andria & Washington Company’s bonds; (3) and that if the Kinzer
deed had been improperly admitted to record yet it "was valid and
created a lien, although it might be subordinate to other liens," and
yet the court "nowhere affixed to this lien its rank in the order of
priorities." It does not appear that execution was ever taken out on
this decree in favor of Fowle, Snowden & Co., rendered on the twenty-
fifth of May, 1859.
The following are the amounts of the debts reported:
‘ Debt under the Bradley deed to the city of Washington, , · $154,340
Debt under the Lennox deed to English creditors, · 102,092
Debt due on the Hay judgments, - · ·· - 79,405
Debt due Fowle, Snowden & Co., ·--- 22,785
Claim of the Alexandria 8a Fredericksburg Railroad Company
of $110,451, allowed by the court at ---- 59,610
A creditor’s bill was brought in this court to ascertain the debts
of the Alexandria & Washington Company, and to settle the order and
priorities of liens. The case was heard by Chief Justice Wnrrn and
Judge Huorras on the fourth and fifth of February, and is now de-
cided as indicated by the following opinion delivered by Judge Huounsz
· Eppa Hunton and Francis Zlfiller, for the city of Washington.
John Selden, C'. W. Wattles, and Leonard Marbury, for Lennox cred-
itors. . `