Opinion. value to pay the debt of the said Company. This charge is not denied in the answer of L. C. Bristow, trustee, to said bill, nor is it questioned in the argument of the case here. As already stated, some of his creditors had filed a bill in chancery convening all the creditors of said Geo. D. Gaines, and asking to have his general deed of trust administered under the orders of the Circuit Court of Henrico. Under said general deed, the trustee was authorized to collect all the rents arising from the real estate of said Gaines, including that upon which the building company held its lien, and the first money realized was dedicated to the payment of counsel fees, commissions to the trustee, and a large number of creditors who were secured prior to the said building company. The Home Building Company (Perpetual) was confronted with this condition of affairs: A large debt of over $20,000, due from an insolvent debtor; no security for it except a lien by deed of trust upon a specific piece of real estate, which was confessedly insufficient to discharge it; a trustee in a general deed of assignment collecting the rents from the property upon which it held its special lien, with power to appropriate said rent to other purposes than the satisfaction of the company's debt, if the company chose to stand by and let it be done. It was important for said building company to promptly take the necessary steps to have the rents arising from the property upon which it held a lien, applied to the discharge of its debt. The suit of L. C. Bristow, trustee, had not yet matured. It was pending at rules. The building company had not yet been served with process as a party defendant, and it proceeded to file a bill praying for an injunction, and asking to have a receiver appointed to take charge of the property upon which it held a lien, rent the same and collect the rents, and hold them subject to the future order of the court. On the 14th day of September, 1893, an order was entered granting the injunction, restraining L. C. Bristow, trustee, his agents or VOL. XCI-4 Opinion. attorneys, from disposing of the rents already collected by them from this property, and also from exercising any further control over said property, and appointing E. A. Catlin, a receiver to rent the houses and collect the rents, and to keep the money so collected until the further order of the court, as prayed for in the bill, and requiring said Catlin to enter into a bond and security as such receiver. To this bill, L. C. Bristow, trustee, filed his answer, and on the 9th day of December, 1893, by counsel, moved the judge of the Circuit Court of Henrico to dissolve this injunction and discharge the receiver, which motion, upon a full hearing of all the facts, the court overruled. And from these two orders, the one granting, and the other refusing to dissolve, the injunction, the case is before this court on appeal. It is insisted by counsel for appellant that the general creditors' bill filed by L. C. Bristow, trustee, for the purpose of administering the entire estate of Geo. D. Gaines conveyed in the general deed of trust under the orders of the court was sufficient, and that all of the rights of the Home Building Company could have been secured in that suit; and that the suit instituted by the building company was obnoxious to the doctrine which forbids a multiplicity of suits. Counsel for appellees, on the other hand, contend that their large debt was placed in a different position under the general deed of assignment from that occupied by it as a prior lien on specific property, especially as to the application of accruing rents; that the whole scope of the general bill was to administer the trust as set out in the deed of assigninent; and that, unless they took some action, their large debt would have been allowed to increase by reason of accruing interest, while the rents of the property securing that debt would have been appropriated under the general deed to other purposes. The doctrine is well settled that unnecessary suits to admin Opinion. ister the same estate will not be allowed. Does this proceeding belong to the class of suits forbidden by the rule just stated? We think not. The right to have a receiver appointed to hold rents to supply any deficiency which may exist after sale is made, when the debtor who is personally liable for the deficiency is insolvent, and in this way obtain a specific lien upon the rents to pay such deficiency, is supported by the highest authority. Clark v. Curtis, 1 Gratt. 289; Beverly v. Brooke, et als., and Beverly v. Scott, et als., 4 Gratt. 187; Bank of Washington v. Hupp, 10 Gratt. 23, 41. In the case of Astor v. Turner & Skidmore, 11 Paige (N. Y.), 436, the rule is stated thus: "Where the mortgaged premises will probably be insufficient to pay the amount due upon the mortgage, and the persor who is personally liable for the mortgage money is insolvent, the mortgagee, after the mortgage has become due, is in equity entitled to such rents and profits to satisfy the anticipated deficiency; and he may obtain a lien thereon for that purpose by the appointment of a receiver." See also, High on Receivers, sec. 588, citing Hamberlain v. Marable, 24 Miss. 586, also sec. 643. There are many authorities to the same effect in the State and Federal reports, but we deem it unnecessary to refer to more. That the Home Building Company then had the right to have the rents of this property applied to its debt cannot be doubted. The only question is as to the mode of doing it. It is true, as contended by counsel for appellant, that the appellee might have proceeded in the main suit, as he was named as a party to it, and have accomplished all that he did by the injunction suit; but, having taken the proceeding by injunction, and L. C. Bristow, trustee, being in no way injured thereby, and the rights of the company being secured, without damage to the rights of any one else, we see no reason for dismissing the proceeding because some other mode Opinion. might have been adopted. Both cases are in the same court, under control of the same judge, who can treat the injunction suit as a petition in the main suit; or can hear the two causes together, which is the more common practice in Virginia, and thus have the entire matter under the same control, to be administered in accordance with the rights of all parties concerned. For the foregoing reasons we are of opinion that there is no error in the decrees complained of and they must be affirmed. On petition for rule and order awarding same. On the 11th day of September, 1894, this court sitting at Staunton, Va., upon the petition of L. C. Bristow, trustee, appellant, awarded a rule against E. A. Catlin, president of the Home Building Association, returnable November 8, 1894, to this court at its place of session at Richmond, to show cause, if any he could, why he should not be attached, fined, and imprisoned, for contempt of the order of this court. This rule was executed upon E. A. Catlin, September 20, 1894. The order allowing the appeal in the case of Bristow, trustee v. Home Building Company (Perpetual) now under consideration is in these words: "Appeal allowed and supersedeas awarded. Bond required in the penalty of $100, conditioned as the law directs." The petition asking that the rule be awarded, sets forth that said E. A. Catlin was continuing to control the property placed in his hands by the injunction order, and to collect the rents arising therefrom, in violation of the supersedeas awarded on appeal, and in contempt of this court. It is insisted that the effect of the super sedeas was to overturn the condition of affairs at the time the appeal was allowed, and put the parties back in the condition they were before the injunction was granted and the receiver appointed; and that it was the duty of said E. A. Catlin, after Opinion. We the supersedeas was awarded, to deliver up the property under his control as receiver to L. C. Bristow trustee. This construction of the effect of the supersedeas would give it the force, temporarily at least, which a final judgment on the appeal would have. The very question which the appeal was intended to litigate, would have been disposed of in advance of the hearing, by mere operation of the appeal itself. think this is a misapprehension of the effect of a supersedeas in a case like this. A supersedeas is only intended to stay further proceedings, to leave matters in the condition it finds them, until the Appellate Court can hear the case and pass on the questions involved in the appeal; it informs the sheriff that the record has been moved into the appellate court for the correction of errors, and enjoins upon him to give notice to the other party, to appear in the appellate court and answer the complaint in error. 4 Minor's Inst., Part I, page [854]; 1 Rob. Prac. (old ed.), page 660. A writ of supersedeas is usually awarded to a final judgment at law, or a decree for money, to stop its enforcement until the appellate court can review the errors complained of in the proceeding in which the judgment or decree was rendered. It leaves the case to stand in statu quo until this is done. The writ of supersedeas in this case required nothing of the lower court, nor the opposite parties, except to appear and have a rehearing. It made no order against them, and required nothing of them except to forbear all further proceedings until the appellate court had reviewed the decrees complained of. The receiver, E. A. Catlin, had been appointed as such by competent authority. He had not been relieved of the responsibility of taking care of the property which had been placed in his hands. He would have no more right to turn said property over to L. C. Bristow, trustee, after notice of the supersedeas, than to have placed it in the hands of any stranger to the controversy. It was of the utmost import |