5. Is petroleum or mineral oil within the meaning of the term "mineral" as it was used in said acts of Congress reserving mineral land from the railroad land grants?

Answer.-Petroleum lands are mineral lands within the meaning of that term in railroad land grants.

6. Does the fact that the appellant was not in privity with the Government in any respect at the time when the patent was issued to the railroad company prevent him from attacking the patent on the ground of fraud, error or irregularity in the issuance thereof as so alleged in the bill?

Answer.-It does.

7. If the mineral exception clause was inserted in the patent with the consent of the defendant, Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and under an understanding and agreement between it and the officers of the Interior Department that said clause should be effective to keep in the United States title to such of the lands described in the patent as were in fact mineral, are the defendants, Southern Pacific Railroad Company and the Kern Trading and Oil Company, estopped to deny the validity of said clause?

Answer.-No; such an agreement is of no greater force as an estoppel than the exception in the patent. The latter being void, the patent passes the title and is not open to collateral attack or to attack by strangers whose only claim was initiated after the issue of the patent.

1

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT.

No. 767. Argued March 3, 1914.-Decided June 22, 1914.

A suit does not arise under the laws of the United States unless it really and substantially involves a dispute or controversy respecting the validity, construction or effect of some law of the United States upon the determination of which the case depends and so appears not by mere inference but by distinct averments according to rules of good pleading.

In this case, held that a suit to restrain trustees in bankruptcy from prosecuting an equity suit against complainants in the state court on the ground that the bankruptcy proceedings were a fraud and that the appointment of the trustees was void was one arising under the laws of the United States within the meaning of § 24, Judicial Code, and the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals is not final. Although there may be a general prayer for relief, if no relief other than injunction against prosecution of a suit in the state court is brought to the attention of either the District Court or the Circuit Court of Appeals, the general prayer should be treated as abandoned. The prohibition, § 720, Rev. Stat., now § 265, Judicial Code, against granting the writ of injunction by the Federal court to stay proceedings in a state court except where authorized by the Bankruptcy Act, held, in this case, to apply to a case commenced after adjudication of bankruptcy to enjoin the trustee from prosecuting a suit in ejectment, in the courts of the State where the land is situated. Such a case is not within the exception or in aid of the bankruptcy proceeding.

206 Fed. Rep. 4; 207 Fed. Rep. 543, affirmed.

THE facts, which involve the jurisdiction of this court of appeals from judgments of the Circuit Court of Appeals and also the construction and application of § 265, Judicial Code (§ 720, Rev. Stat.), are stated in the opinion.

Mr. George C. Bedell, with whom Mr. H. Bisbee was on the brief, for appellants.

Mr. Frank L. Simpson, with whom Mr. E. R. Gunby and Mr. James F. Glen were on the brief, for appellees.

MR. JUSTICE PITNEY delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellants, Joseph Hull, The Prairie Pebble Phosphate Company (hereinafter referred to as the Prairie Company), and the Savannah Trust Company, brought this action in equity in the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts against appellees, Arthur E. Burr, Frank L. Simpson, and J. Howard Edwards, who are trustees in bankruptcy of the Port Tampa Phosphate Company, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Massachusetts. The bill was filed in August, 1912, and, defendants having demurred, an amended bill was filed, and it was stipulated that the demurrer should stand as a demurrer to the substituted bill. The District Court entered a decree sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the bill (206 Fed. Rep. 1). The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decree (206 Fed. Rep. 4), and denied a petition for rehearing (207 Fed. Rep. 543).

The amended bill, besides showing diversity of citizenship, avers in substance as follows: That prior to the transactions in question, Stewart and Meminger were the owners in fee simple of a tract of land in Polk County, Florida, containing 440 acres, together with certain buildings and personal property situate upon it; that on May 22, 1905, in consummation of a prior contract, they conveyed all their right, title, and interest in the property to Hull by deed duly recorded, which vested in him a good legal title in fee simple to the real estate, with full title to the personal property and the right to possession as against all persons, "and his recorded paper title to all the said properties was perfect;" that before the delivery of the deed by Stewart and Meminger to Hull the Port Tampa

Opinion of the Court.

234 U. S.

Company claimed to own some equitable interest in the property, under a contract between it and Stewart and Meminger, which interest Hull purchased for a full consideration, and before the delivery of said deed to Hull the Port Tampa Company adopted and placed upon its records a resolution reciting its agreement to sell the property to Hull, and authorizing and directing Stewart and Meminger to make a deed to him; that soon after the delivery of the deed Hull took possession; that on June 7, 1907, he executed and delivered to the Prairie Company a deed of conveyance of all his right, title, and interest in said properties for the consideration of about $37,000, which deed was shortly afterwards recorded, and the Prairie Company took actual and peaceable possession of the property and has continued to hold it until the present time, having made valuable improvements upon it; that afterwards, and prior to March 26, 1908, the Prairie Company executed and delivered to the Trust Company a deed of trust conveying its right, title, and interest in said properties, together with other properties, to secure the payment of bonds amounting to about $1,800,000, and the deed of trust was duly recorded; that it came to the knowledge of Hull that certain creditors of the Port Tampa Company had asserted that the company owned some interest in said properties, and on the twenty-eighth of November, 1905, he commenced an action of ejectment against that company in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of Florida, being the district in which the property was situate; that the company was served with process therein on December 6, 1905, and such further proceedings were had that on March 13, 1906, upon the verdict of a jury, a judgment was rendered adjudging that Hull was entitled to recover from the Port Tampa Company the fee simple title and right of possession of the lands in question. The bill sets up that on November 8, 1905, a petition in bank

ruptcy was filed against the Port Tampa Company "in this court of bankruptcy" [the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts]; that a subpoena was issued thereon returnable on the twentieth day of the same month, and returned served, and that on the return-day an appearance was entered for the company by one J. H. Robinson. Copies of the creditors' petition, the subpoena, and the appearance are appended to the bill as an exhibit. The bill alleges that defendants assert that by virtue of a decree in bankruptcy made in said District Court on November 27, 1905, adjudging the Port Tampa Company bankrupt, they are the owners of an equitable interest or estate in the said lands and other properties, and that the defendant Burr was, on December 27, 1905, appointed sole trustee in bankruptcy of the company; that he resigned as such trustee on March 12, 1909, and on the same day his resignation was accepted, and Burr, Simpson, and Edwards were appointed trustees in his place; and that defendants claim that by the adjudication in bankruptcy and their appointment the title to an interest or estate in said lands became vested in them as such trustees; that on or about March 26, 1908, and before he resigned as trustee, Burr brought a suit by bill in equity in the circuit court in and for Polk County, Florida, against complainants, to establish such interest or estate, but there has been no trial of this suit on the merits, nor had the same been brought to final issues of fact and law before Burr's resignation; that on January 9, 1912, the defendants filed in said state court a supplemental bill of complaint, wherein they averred that said suit was brought by Burr as trustee in bankruptcy, and that Burr resigned as such trustee on March 12, 1909, and prayed that they might be substituted as complainants in his place; that the present complainants filed an answer to the said supplemental bill, but that the issues have not been tried, and no decree has been rendered mak