Opinion of the Court. subject, under similar conditions, to the same obligations, so far as the delivery of the animals which are safely transported is concerned, as in the case of goods. They are to be delivered at the place of destination to the party designated to receive them if he presents himself, or can with reasonable efforts be found, or to his order. No obligation of the carrier, whether the freight consists of goods or live stock, is more strictly enforced." The same principle necessarily applies to the receiving of live stock by the carrier for transportation. The carrier must at all times be in proper condition both to receive from the shipper and to deliver to the consignee, according to the nature of the property to be transported, as well as to the necessities of the respective localities in which it is received and delivered. A carrier of live stock has no more right to make a special charge for merely receiving or merely delivering such stock, in and through stock yards provided by itself, in order that it may properly receive and load, or unload and deliver, such stock, than a carrier of passengers may make a special charge for the use of its passenger depot by passengers when proceeding to or coming from its trains, or than a carrier may charge the shipper for the use of its general freight depot in merely delivering his goods for shipment, or the consignee of such goods for its use in merely receiving them there within a reasonable time after they are unloaded from the cars. If the carrier may not make such special charges in respect to stock yards which itself owns, maintains or controls, it cannot invest another corporation or company 1 Myrick v. Michigan Central Railroad, 107 U. S. 102, 107; Hall & Co. v. Renfro, 3 Met. (Ky.) 51, 54; Mynard v. Syracuse & Binghamton Railroad, 71 N. Y. 180; Smith v. New Haven & Northampton Railroad, 12 Allen, 531, 533; Kimball v. Rutland & Burlington Railroad, 26 Vermont, 247; South & North Alabama Railroad Company v. Henlein, 52 Alabama, 606, 613; Wilson v. Hamilton, 4 Ohio St. 722, 740; Ayres v. Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, 71 Wisconsin, 372, 379, 381; McCoy v. K. & D. M. R. Co., 44 Iowa, 424, 426; Maslin v. B. & O. R. R. Co., 14 W. Va. 180, 188; St. Louis & Southeastern Railway v. Dorman, 72 Illinois, 504; Moulton v. St. Paul, Minneapolis &c. Railway, 31 Minnesota, 85, 87; Kansas Pacific Railway v. Nichols, 9 Kansas, 235, 248; Clarke v. Rochester & Syracuse Railroad, 14 N. Y. 570, 573; Palmer v. Grand Junction Railway, 4 M. & W. 749. Opinion of the Court. with authority to impose burdens of that kind upon shippers and consignees. The transportation of live stock begins with their delivery to the carrier to be loaded upon its cars, and ends only after the stock is unloaded and delivered, or offered to be delivered, to the consignee, if to be found, at such place as admits of their being safely taken into possession. We must not be understood as holding that the railroad company, in this case, was under any legal obligation to furnish, or cause to be furnished, suitable and convenient appliances for receiving and delivering live stock at every point on its line in the city of Covington where persons engaged in buying, selling or shipping live stock, chose to establish stock yards. In respect to the mere loading and unloading of live stock, it is only required by the nature of its employment to furnish such facilities as are reasonably sufficient for the business at that city. So far as the record discloses, the yards maintained by the appellants are, for the purposes just stated, equal to all the needs, at that city, of shippers and consignees of live stock; and if the appellee had been permitted to use them, without extra charge for mere "yardage," they would have been without just ground of complaint in that regard; for it did not concern them whether the railroad company itself maintained stock yards, or employed another company or corporation to supply the facilities for receiving and delivering live stock it was under obligation to the public to furnish. But as the appellant did not accord to appellees the privileges they were entitled to from its principal, the carrier, and as the carrier did not offer to establish a stock yard of its own for shippers and consignees, the court below did not err in requiring the railroad company and the receiver to receive and deliver live stock from and to the appellees at their own stock yards in the immediate vicinity of appellant's yards, when the former were put in proper condition to be used for that purpose, under such reasonable regulations as the railroad company might establish. It was not within the power of the railroad company, by such an agreement as that of November 19, 1881, or by agreement in any form, to burden the appellees with charges for services it was bound to render without any Statement of the Case. other compensation than the customary charges for transporDecree affirmed. tation. GUARANTY TRUST AND SAFE DEPOSIT COMPANY v. GREEN COVE SPRINGS AND MELROSE RAILROAD COMPANY. APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA. No. 155. Submitted January 21, 1891. - Decided March 2, 1891. Limitations upon the power of a trustee in a railroad mortgage to take proceedings to enforce payment of the amount secured should be construed strictly. A provision in a mortgage that the mode of sale provided by it "shall be exclusive of all others" is an attempt to provide against a remedy in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings and oust the jurisdiction of the courts, and is therefore invalid. A provision in a statute authorizing notice to be given to an absent defendant to appear, by publishing the same in a newspaper once a week for four months, is not satisfied by a publication once a week for four lunar months; but the word "month" when so used signifies a calendar month. To support a decree for foreclosure against an absent defendant brought in by publication, publication for the full period required is necessary. Cooper v. Reynolds, 10 Wall. 308, distinguished. THIS was an appeal from a decree of the Circuit Court for the Northern District of Florida dismissing a bill of foreclosure filed by the appellant to which the Green Cove Springs and Melrose Railroad Company, the Western Railway Company, the Green Cove Springs and Midland Railroad Company, and a number of other individual defendants were made parties. The mortgage or deed of trust was made June 20, 1882, by the Green Cove Springs and Melrose Railroad Company to the plaintiff to secure its bonds, and the bill averred $25,000 of such bonds to be outstanding and unpaid, and also contained the usual allegations with regard to the non-payment of interest coupons. The bill further averred, in substance, that the company had lost possession of its road and Statement of the Case. other property, which was in the possession of and operated by other parties under a pretended sale made August 3, 1885, in pursuance of certain judicial proceedings in the Circuit Court of Clay County, Florida, but claimed that notwithstanding such sale, its lien under the mortgage was not discharged or extinguished. These proceedings were instituted by certain persons composing the firm of Budington, Wilson & Co., who, on July 25, 1884, began a suit in equity in the Circuit Court for Clay County against such railroad company and one Canova, in which the plaintiff, the Trust and Safe Deposit Company, was also mentioned in the stating part of such bill as defendant. It appeared that such suit was begun to enforce a statutory lien for work and labor; that there was no prayer for a foreclosure of plaintiff's deed of trust, nor other relief against the grantee in said deed; nor was any case stated in hostility to the deed or the lien thereunder. It was further alleged that an attempt was made to serve the grantee in the deed by a publication of a notice in accordance with the statute of Florida in the case of a non-resident defendant, but that such statute was not complied with; that no notice was ever served upon the plaintiff, either by publication or otherwise, and the court had no jurisdiction of the person of the plaintiff in such suit, and the sale thereunder was null and void; that at no time before or at the commencement of the publication of the order to appear, nor at any time during the publication. of said order, did the state court take possession of said road, or of any of its property by attachment, receiver or other process made or issued in said suit; that on January 16, 1885, a decree pro confesso was entered for want of the appearance of plaintiffs therein; that on March 11, 1885, the firm of Budington & Wilson, a distinct and separate firm from Budington, Wilson & Company, and one Osias A. Budington, intervened in said suit by petition, and alleged a new and distinct cause of action against the defendant railroad company, not stated in the original bill of complaint, namely, a statutory lien for labor performed for the sum of $1700, and said Budington also averred that he had recovered a judgment against said company for the sum of $1012.50, and they prayed for leave Statement of the Case. to prove their claims in said suit. But neither of the said intervenors prayed any relief against the grantee in the deed of trust, nor did either of them, nor did any person in their behalf, serve or attempt to serve any notice on said grantee of the filing of said petition, nor the claims therein asserted. It was further alleged that on the 12th of November, 1884, the several parties who had appeared in the said suit entered into an agreement for a sale of the road, which took place on August 3, 1885; the defendant Greely becoming the purchaser as trustee for himself and all others who had filed claims or demands against said company, for the sum of $20,000: and that subsequently, and under an agreement of the various creditors of the road who had transferred their claims to Greely, consenting that he should organize a new company, he executed a lease of the road to a corporation known as the Western Railway Company, by which it was agreed that such company should pay by way of rent eight per cent per annum upon a valuation of $30,000, for five years. The bill further charged that "the feeble defence and supineness and indifference to the interests of the said bondholders on the part of the said Green Cove Springs and Melrose Railroad Company, its directors and officers, as shown by the said judicial proceedings in said state court, if the same was intended to affect and destroy the lien of said deed of trust, was and is a fraud upon the rights of the said trustee and said bondholders;" that the sale and subsequent proceedings were fraudulent, and should be vacated and set aside; "that said company, grantor in said deed of trust, in effect consented to a sale of said road to pay simple contract debts and demands, which were not a lien upon its property paramount to said lien created by said deed of trust, and many of which had not been reduced to judg ment:" that every lien for work and labor performed was declared by the decree of the court in favor of persons who were not parties to the original bill of Budington, Wilson & Co., but who had come into said cause long subsequent to the decree pro confesso, and asserted their claims thereafter, of which said grantee and bondholders had no knowledge whatever: that the aggregate amount of the said statutory liens so |