Opinion of the Court. lands. Had the bill been filed by the trustee under this mortgage for the foreclosure of the whole amount of the debt, and a similar cross-bill had been filed for its cancellation, there could be no doubt of the appealable character of any decree rendered upon these pleadings. This mortgage, however, contained a provision permitting a foreclosure by any holder of an overdue bond or coupon. Parker's bill was filed practically for the benefit of the entire number of bondholders, and the cross-bill could not be sustained except upon the theory that the entire mortgage was invalid as a lien upon these lands. While a decree in favor of the cross-plaintiff might not have been binding upon any defendant to the cross-bill who did not appear, it certainly would have been binding upon Hamlin as well as Parker, since Hamlin, on being made a plaintiff, expressly stipulated that the cause should be considered as if he had been one of the original plaintiffs; that Parker's pleadings should be considered as his; and that the pleadings of the defendants should apply equally to him. If Parker's argument in this connection be sound, it would necessarily follow that if every bondholder of this mortgage had intervened, and a cross-bill had been filed against them all, praying a cancellation of the entire mortgage, our jurisdiction to review a dismissal of this bill could not be sustained as to any of such bondholders whose decrees were not more than five thousand dollars, notwithstanding it would be sustained as to others whose decrees were larger. The result would be that the land might be sold for the benefit of the larger bondholders, and freed from the lien of the smaller. Where several plaintiffs claim under the same title, and the determination of the cause necessarily involves the validity of that title, this court has jurisdiction as to all such plaintiffs, though the individual claims of none of them exceed five thousand dollars. Thus in Shields v. Thomas, 17 How. 3, 4, where a bill was filed by several distributees of an estate, to compel payment of money alleged to be due them, and a decree was rendered in their favor, it was held that this court had jurisdiction over an appeal, although the amount payable to each individual was less than two thousand dollars. It was the Opinion of the Court. held that the matter in controversy was the amount due the representatives of the deceased collectively; and not the particular sum to which each was entitled, when the amount was distributed among them. Said the court: "They all claimed under one and the same title. They had a common and undivided interest in the claim; and it was perfectly immaterial to the appellant how it was to be shared among them.” The case of Rodd v. Heartt, 17 Wall. 354, is still more nearly analogous. In this case, which was in admiralty, a fund exceeding the jurisdictional amount paid into the registry of the court was claimed on the one hand by several creditors secured by one mortgage, and on the other by a number of mariners and material men. A decree having been made adverse to the mortgagees, an appeal was taken by them to this court, and it was held that although no one of the claims under the mortgage equalled the jurisdictional amount, yet as the claim of the appellants, which was disallowed, exceeded that sum, an appeal would lie. In The Connemara, 103 U. S. 754, it was held that where salvors united in a claim for a single salvage service, jointly rendered by them, the owner of the property was entitled to an appeal where the sum decreed exceeded $5000, though in the division among the several parties sharing in the recovery several were awarded less than $5000. In line with these cases are those of Davies v. Corbin, 112 U. S. 36, and Handley v. Stutz, 137 U. S. 366. The true distinction is between cases in which there are several plaintiffs interested collectively under a common title, and those wherein the matters in dispute are separate and distinct, and are joined in one suit for convenience or economy. Of the latter class are those relied upon by the plaintiff Parker in this case, and his motion to dismiss must, therefore, be denied. Indeed the cross-bill to set aside the whole mortgage as to these lands is sufficient of itself to remove all difficulty with regard to our jurisdiction. (2) The case upon the merits depends upon the question whether the mortgage of 1870 should be construed to cover a land grant made by Congress the following year to the Baton Rouge Company, in aid of the construction of its road. To Opinion of the Court. answer this question satisfactorily it is necessary to consider the power of this company under its charter, and the manner in which it attempted to exercise this power. The act of 1869 of the legislature of Louisiana, incorporating the Baton Rouge Company, authorized it (sec. 13) to obtain from any parish or other municipality any rights, privileges or franchises that such municipality might choose to grant in reference to the construction of the road and by section 14, it was authorized to borrow money or to purchase property for the purpose of constructing the road, to issue its corporate bonds, and, to secure the payment of such bonds, to mortgage its road, etc. By section 15, provision was made for a second mortgage guaranteed by the State, and for bonds to be issued and made payable to the State or bearer. By section 16, the first mortgage that should be given was declared to be a prior lien upon the railroad within the State, including all the "real and personal estate within the State of Louisiana, appurtenant to, or necessary for the operation of said main line of railroad, owned by the company at the date of said mortgage, or which may be acquired by it thereafter; and upon the corporate franchises and privileges of said company, granted by the State of Louisiana, relative to the construction, operation and use of said main line of railroad within the State of Louisiana," etc. The mortgage did not differ materially from this act, though its description of property covered by it is still more explicit, and is as follows: "About five hundred and one miles of railroad within the said State of Louisiana, together with the right of way, road-bed, rails, depots, stations, shops, buildings, machinery, tools, engines, cars, tenders and other rolling stock; also all the real and personal estate within the State of Louisiana owned by the said company at the date of this mortgage, or which may be acquired by it thereafter, appurtenant to, or necessary for the operation of said main line of said railroad or any of said branches connected with the said main line, or to be connected therewith; also all other property, real and personal, of every kind and description whatsoever and wherever situated in the State of Louisiana which is now owned or which shall hereafter be acquired by the said company, and Opinion of the Court. which shall be appurtenant to or necessary or used for the operation of said main line of railroad, or of any of said branches; also the tenements, hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging, and all of the estate, right, title and interest, legal and equitable, of the said company and its successors and assigns therein, together with the corporate franchises and privileges of said company at any time granted or to be granted by the State of Louisiana relative to the construction, operation and use of said railroad within said State." The bonds issued under this mortgage contained a similar description of the property, the latter clause of such description, however, purporting to include "the corporate franchises and privileges of said company granted by the State of Louisiana or by act of Congress, relative to the construction,” etc. How these words, "or by act of Congress," came to be inserted in the bonds does not appear; it may have been an oversight, or the company may have supposed that the land grant would be acquired and that the insertion of these words would impart additional currency to the bonds. It is not material, however, to determine why or how this was done, since neither the act of the legislature nor the mortgage itself assumed in terms to cover anything granted by the act of Congress. The language of the act of the legislature and of the mortgage itself restricts its lien to real and personal property situated in the State of Louisiana, then owned or which should thereafter be acquired, and which should be appurtenant to, or necessary, or used for the operation of the main line of said. road, or any of its branches. The succeeding clause, which includes tenements, hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging, etc., was manifestly not intended as an expansion of the prior clause, and for the purposes of this case may be treated as superfluous. No argument is needed to show that a land grant is not necessary to the operation of a railroad; it may be a necessary aid in the construction of a road, but it is certainly not necessary in its operation. Plaintiff's contention, then, if supportable at all, must be upon the theory that the land grant was appurtenant to the road, not necessa Opinion of the Court. rily to its operation, but to the road itself. The word "appurtenant," as ordinarily defined, is that which belongs to or is connected with something else to which it is subordinate or less worthy, and with which it passes as an incident, such as an easement or servitude to land; the tackle, apparel, rigging and furniture to a ship; a right of common to a pasture; or a barn, garden or orchard to a house or messuage. In a strict legal sense it is said that land can never be appurtenant to land, Jackson v. Hathaway, 15 Johns. 447, 454; Leonard v. White, 7 Mass. 6; Woodhull v. Rosenthal, 61 N. Y. 382; but it was evidently contemplated by this mortgage that real as well as personal property subsequently acquired, such as land for stations, machine shops or other purposes immediately connected with the road, should pass under the lien of the mortgage. Property, however, not connected with what is ordinarily termed the plant, or not forming a part of the organic structure of the road, is never treated as appurtenant to it. Thus in Humphreys v. McKissock, 140 U. S. 304, decided at the last term of this court, it was held that a railroad company joining in the construction of an elevator upon land not belonging to it, and situated at some distance from its road, did not by its ownership of stock in the elevator company acquire such an interest in it as would pass as an appurtenance under the mortgage of the road, as constructed or to be constructed, and the "appurtenances thereunto belonging." The court went further, and held that the elevator itself, if owned by the company, would not be appurtenant to its road. In line with this are the earlier cases of Harris v. Elliott, 10 Pet. 25, holding that the soil and freehold of a street did not pass as appurtenant to a lot of land fronting upon such street. So in Linthicum v. Ray, 9 Wall. 241, it was said that the right to use a wharf would not pass as appurtenant to a lot, as it was not in any way connected with the enjoyment or use of the lot, and a right not so connected could not be annexed as an incident to land so as to become appurtenant to it. In Smith v. McCullough, 104 U. S. 25, a mortgage executed by a railroad company upon its then and thereafter to be acquired property contained a specific description of such property, and was |