The bill of complaint in this case was filed in January, 1876, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Minnesota, by Samuel L. M. Barlow, sole surviving executor of the last will, and trustee of the estate, of John F. A. Sanford, deceased, (his co-executor and co-trustee, Frederick C. Gebhard, hav ng died in 1867), and the widow and two of the three children of Sanford, as plaintiffs, against the following defendants: Charles P. Chouteau and Julia Maffitt, the heirs at law and legatees and devisees of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., deceased; the executors of the will of said Pierre Chouteau, Jr.; the heirs at law and legatees and devisees of John B. Sarpy, deceased; the executors of the will of said Sarpy; the widow and residuary legatee and devisee of Joseph A. Sire, deceased; the sole surviving executor of the will of said Sire; Benjamin C. Sanford, the other child of Sanford; and numerous persons alleged to claim an interest in some of the land which is the principal subject of the suit. The averments of the bill, so far as they are material, are as follows: Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Sarpy, Sire, and Sanford, in 1842, formed a copartnership under the firm name of P. Chouteau, Jr., & Co., for the purpose of dealing in real and personal property at St. Louis, Missouri, and in the region of country lying to the northward of that city. The capital was to be furnished, and the profits and losses were to be shared by the several copartners in the following proportions: Chouteau, 58 per cent.; Sarpy, 16; Sanford, 16; Sire, 10. In 1849 a change was made, whereby the assets were to be owned, and the profits and losses to be shared, in the following proportions: Chouteau, 48; Sarpy, 17 1/3; Sanford, 17 1/3; Sire, 17 1/3. In 1852 the copartnership was dissolved by mutual consent. During its existence it bought and paid for with copartnership funds acre lands and town lots in Wisconsin and Minnesota, to hold and sell for the profit and benefit of the copartnership, and among them certain lots named in schedules to the bills. As to some of the lots the title was taken in the name of one Borup, and in September, 1855, he and his wife conveyed the same to said copartnership with other lands belonging to it, which he held in the same way. As to others of the lots the title was taken in the name of one Sibley, and in September, 1855, and February, 1856, he and his wife conveyed the same to said copartnership with other lands belonging to it, which he held in the same way. In March, 1857, one Robert conveyed to said copartnership other land in St. Paul, Minnesota, which it then possessed and paid for with copartnership funds. Besides the land named in schedules to the bill, town lots in various town and villages, and acre lands in various counties in Minnesota, were purchased and paid for by said copartnership, and conveyed to it by deeds. The property so conveyed to it was the property of its said members in the proportions last mentioned. Sire died in 1854, and Sarpy and Sanford died in 1857. In December, 1859, Benjamin C. Sanford released to the widow and the other two children of his father all his interest in the estate of his father. Pierre Chouteau, Jr., died in 1865.
The bill then contains the following averments, which set forth the particular question in controversy: