Statement of the Case. should be forfeited and should be conveyed by the company to the city of Oakland. By deed dated March 31, 1868, and acknowledged April 1, 1868, Horace W. Carpentier conveyed to the Oakland Water Front Company, its successors or assigns, the water front to the city of Oakland, and the rights and franchises therein mentioned. The Oakland Water Front Company by deed dated January 12, 1869, conveyed to the city of Oakland the land agreed to be conveyed in the above contract. The Oakland Water Front Company, July 12, 1879, dedicated for the purposes of a harbor and navigable water course nearly the whole of the estuary of San Antonio and to the fullest extent all the land in the estuary set aside by the government for harbor purposes. On July 27, 1870, the Oakland Water Front Company conveyed to the Western Pacific Railroad Company the tract of land on the water front selected and located by it for railroad purposes under the terms of the contract of April 1, 1868, as desired and required by the city of Oakland, and these are tracts one and six and a portion of five. The Western Pacific Railroad Company in 1868 or 1869 established its terminus on tract first, built a long wharf and station at the end of it with buildings, docks, wharves, and depot for passengers and freight by vessels and ferryboats. Tract second was conveyed by the Oakland Water Front Company to the Central Pacific Railroad Company on May 3, 1878. The greater portion of this tract is occupied by a slip for freight steamers, and the tracts and appurtenances necessary in handling freight cars. Large sums of money were expended by the railroad companies, and the fulfilment of conditions on their part may be assumed. The area of the seven tracts embraced 838 acres. It was stipulated that the Central Pacific Railroad Company since the year 1870 had been, and still was, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of California, by the consolidation and amalgamation of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, of California, the Western Pacific Railroad Company, San Francisco and Oakland Railroad Company, San Francisco and Alameda Railroad Company, and other railroad companies, all theretofore organized and doing business under Statement of the Case. the laws of the State of California; that the South Pacific Coast Railway Company since the year 1887 had been, and still was, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of California; that the Oakland Water Front Company was organized as a corporation under and in pursuance of its articles of incorporation set forth in the record, and was created for the purposes therein specified as such corporation and none other, and had ever since existed, and still existed, under such articles, and none other, under the laws of the State of California; that the defendant, Southern Pacific Company, was a corporation, citizen, and resident, as set forth in the original and amended bills of complaint; that the different pieces or parcels of land described were parts and portions of the bay of San Francisco and of San Antonio estuary, and in their natural state were covered by their waters at ordinary high tide, and were so at the time California was admitted into the Union; that tracts first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh were separated from the upland by the patent line of the Mexican grant known as the Peralta grant, confirmed by the United States to the heirs of Peralta, which line was designed as meandering along the line of ordinary high tide; that the Central Pacific Railroad Company was the owner of the upland down to the Peralta grant line in front of tracts first, second, and seventh, and was the owner of an undivided one-half interest in the upland down to the Peralta line fronting upon tract sixth; that the Central Pacific Railroad Company leased all of said tracts of land, both upland and tide water, to defendant, Southern Pacific Company, on February 17, 1885, for a period of ninety-nine years, and the Southern Pacific Company ever since that time had been in the actual occupancy of tracts first and second; that the Southern Pacific Company was the owner of the upland in front of and bounded by tract third and in the actual occupation thereof; that said company was not the owner of any upland adjoining tract fourth, but was in the actual occupancy of that tract; that the South Pacific Coast Railway Company was the owner of at least an undivided one-half interest in the upland down to the Peralta grant line in front of tract fifth, and that Statement of the Case. company, on July 1, 1887, leased that tract together with the upland, to defendant, Southern Pacific Company, for a term of ninety-nine years, and ever since that time said Southern Pacific Company had been occupying and using said tract; that defendant, Southern Pacific Company, acquired by mesne conveyances, from Horace W. Carpentier, all the right, title, and interest of Carpentier, if any he had, in and to tracts third and fourth; that the South Pacific Coast Railway Company acquired by like conveyances, such interest, if any there were, to tract fifth; and that the Central Pacific Railroad Company had acquired, by like conveyances, such interest, if any, to tracts first, second, sixth and seventh. Certain proceedings and decree in a suit in 1857, between the city of Oakland and Carpentier, were also put in evidence; also a sheriff's deed to one Watson dated April 24, 1856, purporting to convey the water front; also tax deed dated October 14, 1871, to Thomas Lemon, on judgment for taxes against the Oakland Water Front Company and the water front of the city of Oakland; also tax deed dated May 14, 1880, of the water front to Watson. It was agreed that whatever right, title, or interest was acquired through these deeds, or either of them, became vested by mesne conveyances in the Central Pacific Railroad Company, as to tracts first, second, sixth, and seventh; in defendant, Southern Pacific Company, as to tracts third and fourth; and in the South Pacific Coast Railway Company as to tract fifth. On July 12, 1882, the council of the city of Oakland passed an ordinance directing the withdrawal of defences in certain cases and the filing of a disclaimer of any interest or estate in the property described therein, and the discontinuance of an action in which the city of Oakland was plaintiff and the Oakland Water Front Company and others were defendants, with a stipulation that the Oakland Water Front Company might have a final judgment and decree quieting its title to the land described in its cross-bill of complaint, provided that the reversion of the city to collect wharfage, tolls, and dockage at the expiration of the original grant to Carpentier should not be affected; and further providing that all claims, demands, controversies, actions, and causes of action against Opinion of the Court. the Central Pacific Railroad Company and the Oakland Water Front Company, or against either of them, in which the city of Oakland was interested, were thereby released, compromised, settled, and adjusted forever. Certain decrees in the suits referred to in the ordinance, quieting title to the tracts in the Central Pacific, the Oakland Water Front Company, and Huntington, as against the city of Oakland, are in the record. Mr. W. H. H. Hart, Attorney General of the State of California, opened for plaintiff. Mr. Aylett R. Cotton was on his brief. Mr. William M. Stewart for defendant. Mr. J. Hubley Ashton for defendant. Mr. John S. Miller and Mr. William R. Davis as amici curiæ, and as counsel for the city of Oakland. Mr. James A. Johnson, Mr. William Lair Hill, Mr. Edward J. Pringle, and Mr. H. A. Powell were on their brief. Mr. Harvey S. Brown filed a brief for defendant. Mr. John K. Cowen for defendant. Mr. Hugh L. Bond, Jr., was on his brief. Mr. William H. H. Hart, Attorney General of the State of California, closed for plaintiff. MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court. By the third of our general rules it is provided: "This court considers the former practice of the courts of king's bench and of chancery, in England, as affording outlines for the practice of this court; and will, from time to time, make such alterations therein as circumstances may render necessary." 108 U. S 574. This rule is, with the exception of some slight verbal alterations and the addition of the word "former" before Opinion of the Court. the word "practice" in the first line, the same as original general rule seven, adopted August 8, 1791. 1 Cranch, xvii; 2 Dall. 411. And in cases of original jurisdiction it has been determined that this court will frame its proceedings according to those which had been adopted in the English courts in analogous cases, and that the rules of court in chancery should govern in conducting the case to a final issue, Rhode Island v. Massachusetts, 12 Pet. 657; 13 Pet. 23; 14 Pet. 210; 15 Pet. 233; Georgia v. Grant, 6 Wall. 241; although the court is not bound to follow this practice when it would embarrass the case by unnecessary technicalities or defeat the purposes of justice. Florida v. Georgia, 17 How. 478. It was held in Mallow v. Hinde, 12 Wheat. 193, 198, that where an equity cause may be finally decided between the parties litigant without bringing others before the court who would, generally speaking, be necessary parties, such parties may be dispensed with in the Circuit Court if its process cannot reach them or if they are citizens of another State; but if the rights of those not before the court are inseparably connected with the claim of the parties litigant so that a final decision cannot be made between them without affecting the rights of the absent parties, the peculiar constitution of the Circuit Court forms no ground for dispensing with such parties. And the court remarked: "We do not put this case upon the ground of jurisdiction, but upon a much broader ground, which must equally apply to all courts of equity whatever may be their structure as to jurisdiction. We put it upon the ground that no court can adjudicate directly upon a person's right, without the party being actually or constructively before the court." In Shields v. Barrow, 17 How. 130, the subject is fully considered by Mr. Justice Curtis speaking for the court. The case of Russell v. Clarke's Executors, 7 Cranch, 98, is there referred to as pointing out three classes of parties to a bill in equity: "1. Formal parties. 2. Persons having an interest in the controversy, and who ought to be made parties, in order that the court may act on that rule which requires it to decide on, and finally determine the entire controversy, and do com |