Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western Division of the District of Washington.

This suit was brought on the equity side of the circuit court of the United States for the Western division of the district of Washington to obtain a decree adjudging the invalidity of, and canceling of record, certain taxes levied by the county of Pierce and the city of Tacoma, respectively, upon certain property now owned by the complainant Carr. The property upon which the taxes were levied consists of a power house and power plant used in operating certain street-railway lines in the city of Tacoma, in Pierce county, state of Washington, and a suburban line connecting ilie town of Steilacoom, in that county, with the city of Tacoma. On March 20, 1897, all of the property mentioned, including the street-railway lines, was sold as an entirety by a master of the court below, In pursuance of a decree entered by that court in a suit brought: therein by the New York Guaranty & Indemnity Company, trustee, for the foreclosure of a trust deed of the property made to it for the security of certain bonded indebtedness, at which sale the property was .purchased by one Levis, who afterwards conveyed it to the complainant Carr. Of the proceeds of that foreclosure sale, there remained in the registry of the court, when this suit was instituted, an undistributed balance of $13,451.88; and the taxes here in question, standing delinquent against the power house and power plant on the tax records of the county of Pierce and the city of Tacoma, respectively, and it being the duty of the receivers appointed in the foreclosure suit to discharge all valid taxes against the property, and the complainant in that suit being entitled, as trustee, to receive, for distribution to the bondholders, any surplus of the fund in court remaining after the discharge of all the receiver’s obligations, this' suit was instituted jointly by the trustee, complainant in the former suit, and the present owner of the property under the sale In that suit, to contest the validity of the disputed taxes. By an amendment ol the bill, certain taxes on lots in the Ridgedale addition to the city of Tacoma, included in the railway property acquired by the complainant Carr, and the validity of which was not disputed by the complainant’s hill, was included in the subject-matter of the present suit, to the end that the decree to he entered therein, directing the payment of the fund in court of such taxes as should he adjudged valid, might extend to the taxes on those lots. No review-of the decree of the court below in respect to the taxes on those lots, however, is here sought. The taxes levied upon the trackage of the Steilacoom Line were held by the court below to be invalid, and their cancellation was directed. To this part of the decree no objection was taken in any form. The remaining taxes controverted by the bill were held by the court below to be valid, and it is to reverse that part of the decree that the present appeal is brought. Those taxes were levied on the power house and. power plant, together with the site thereof, by the county of Pierce in the-years 1891, 1892, 1893, and 1895, and by the city of Tacoma in the years 1892 and 1893. The power house and power plant are situated upon a tract of land in the city of Tacoma, the westerly portion of which (that is to say, the part lying west of the east boundary of Cliff avenue produced) was, during the years of the contested tax levies, owned in fee by the Tacoma Railway & Motor Company, while the easterly portion of the tract (that is to say, all that part lying east of the east boundary of Cliff avenue produced) was during: those years held by the motor company under a lease of date April 18, 1889, from the Northern Pacific Railroad Company for a term of 25 years from May 1, 1889; reserving an annual cash rental, and providing for the payment of the taxes by the lessee during the term of the lease. The motor company’s part of the tract was formerly a part of Cliff avenue, a platted street of the city of Tacoma, and prior to the building of the power plant the city of Tacoma, at the instance of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, passed an ordinance, approved May 11, T889, vacating that part of Cliff avenue now embraced in, and constituting the whole of, the part of the tract owned in fee by the motor company. Another street, in the city, known as “A Street,” adjoined the vacated portion of Cliff avenue on the west; and under the law of the state of Washington, and the provisions of the vacating ordinance, the title to the whole of the vacated strip passed to the Northern Pacific Company, as owner in fee of the whole land adjoining the vacated strip on the east, and the railroad company shortly afterwards, to wit, May 1, 1890, conveyed it in fee to the motor company. The Northern Pacific Railroad Company’s ownership in fee of the leased part of the power-plant site was a matter of public record. That part of the power-plant site owned in fee by the motor company is about two-fifths, and the part leased from the Northern Pacific Company is about three-fifths, of the area of the whole site. The relative value of the two portions of the site is not made to appear. The improvements, which consist of a power house, power plant, and car barn, together with' certain machinery, stand in about equal portions upon the two parts of the site; and the respective portions' of the improvements are alleged in the bill, and found by the master, to be of about' equal values. They are also alleged in the bill, and admitted by the answers thereto, and found by the master, to be “one entire and inseparable aggregation of buildings, structures, plant, and machinery, covering the whole of said tract, and neither the use nor the valuation thereof have been, or are, capable of segregation.” For the years 1891, 1892, and 1893 .the power-plant site was assessed as an entirety by the county of Pierce at 839,330, 827,500, and 827,500, respectively, and “improvements” thereon at 815,000, during each of those years. For the year 1895 the site was assessed by the county at 812,300, no assessment being made for improvements thereon. For each of the years 1892 and 1893 the site, as an entirety, was assessed by the city of Tacoma at 854,080, and improvements thereon at 818.000. The city taxes for the year 1892 having become delinquent, a portion of the property was sold therefor to the defendant Gove, to whom a tax certificate therefor was issued. The other taxes in question still stand delinquent on the rolls.

The sixth, eighth, eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, and part of the twenty-first findings of the master are as follows: “(6) That portion of said land upon which said power plant stood during said years, east of Cliff avenue, and described on said plat, Exhibit E, by the lines B-E, C-B, C-F, and F-E, was •embraced within what was designated by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and listed by the county of Pierce, as the right of way of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company; but it was in the actual use and occupation of the Tacoma Railway & Motor Company for the purposes of the power plant.” “(8) That during all the years from 1891 to 1896, inclusive, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and its receivers paid all of the taxes assessed and charged against the right oí wa.y of said Northern Pacific Railroad Company in the city of Tacoma.” “(18) That the personal property of the Tacoma Railway & Motor Company was assessed during each of said years 1891 to 1896, inclusive, by the assessor of Pierce county, for the purpose of taxation, after having been duly returned to said assessor, and the same was duly equalized by the board of equalization; and said assessment included all of the personal property of said company, and, among other things, the power plant of said company, including buildings and machinery, as an entirety, and the line of street railway between Eleventh street, in the city of Tacoma, áhd a point in the town of Steilacoom, — being about twelve miles of track, substructures, and superstructures, — known as the ‘Steilacoom Line.’ That said Tacoina Railway & Moior Company and Its receivers have heretofore paid all taxes levied and assessed against it as personal property. (19) That the taxes standing charged on the tax rolls of Pierce county for the years 3893, 1894, 1895, and 3.896, on what is termed the ‘Tacoma & Steilacoom Line,’ were entered on the real-estate assessment rolls of said county, and embraced the same property entered upon' the personal property assessment rolls of the Tacoma Railway & Motor Company, on which payment was made by sa,id company. That the city of Tacoma in the years 1892 and 1893, added to the real-estate assessment on the property described on page 4 of this report the sum of «$18,000 for improvements. That there were no improvements upon said lands that year, or any other year, other than the building, power plant, and ma.cliinery, which was an inseparable aggregation of building, machinery, car barn, etc., incapable of separate segregation or valuation; and all said power plant, and everything situate upon said land, was assessed by the city of Tacoina in the years 1892 and 1893, and by the county of Pierce in the years 1891. to 1896, inclusive, as personal property, and the taxes were paid on the same as personal property. (20) That all of the taxes described in the hill and in the evidence as having been charged and levied upon improvements upon the land described in the bill constitute a double assessment, in that said assessment on what is designated therein as on improvements is a duplication of the assessment of personal property returned and assessed for each and all of said years. That the taxes and assessments charged on account of right of way, substructures, and superstructures on the real-estate rolls of Pierce county on what is known as the ‘Tacoma & Steilacoom Line,’ and the taxes levied thereon by the authorities of Pierce county, are a. double assessment, in that they are a duplication of the same property assessed and taxed under the head of ‘Track Belonging to the Tacoma Railway & Motor Company,’ and upon which payment liad heretofore been made by the Tacoma Railway & Motor Company. (2.1) That during all of the year 1892 there was situate upon the lands above described, on page 4 of this report, a power house, power plant, and car barn belonging to and owned by said Tacoma Railway &'Motor Company, which together constituted one entire and inseparable aggregation of buildings, structures, plant, and machinery, covering the whole of said tract, neither the use nor the value of which were or are capable of segregation, and which was so situated partly upon the portion of said land leased from said Northern Pacific Railroad Company and partly upon the land owned by said Tacoma Railway & Motor Company, as aforesaid, in about equal portions and values, upon said two parts of said tract, respectively. 'That in the year 1892 the defendant, city of Tacoma, by its authorized officers, undertook io, and did, assess the above-described lands as one tract, to and in the name of the Tacoma Railway & Motor Company, for purposes of municipal taxation of said city for said year, and so assessed the value of said tract at the sum of $54,080, and so assessed the value of the improvements on said tract, apart and separate from the land, at the sum of $18,000, and thereupon entered said assessments upon its assessment roll for purposes of its municipal taxation for the year 1892. That thereafter said city levied and extended on its tax rolls for said year 1892 the sum of $864.96, as taxes of said year charged against said tract, and the improvements thereon for municipal purposes of the city for said year. That the taxes so extended and entered in said tax rolls being unpaid a.t the date when, by force of the provisions of the charter of said city, the city taxes levied for the year 1892 became delinquent, said sum was entered by the authorized officer of said city as delinquent taxes against said premises for the year 1892; and thereafter said land, together with the power plant, power house, and car barn thereon, was sold by said city of Tacoma, at a tax sale held in said city, pursuant to the provisions of its charter, on February 6,1893, to the defendant Royal A. Gove for the sum of $999.48, which sum the said Royal A. Gove then and there paid to said city therefor, and thereupon a certificate of such sale was issued and delivered to said defendant Royal A. Gove by the authorized officer of said city, pursuant to the provisions of the charter of said city, and said defendant is now the owner and holder of said certificate.”

The trial court sustained exceptions filed by the county of Pierce and the city of Tacoma and the defendant Gove, respectively, to that part of paragraph 6 of the master’s findings which reads as follows, “And listed by the county of Pierce,” and to that part of paragraph 19 which reads as follows, “And all said power plant, and everything situate upon said land so assessed by the city of Tacoma in the years 1892 and 1898, and by the county of Pierce in the years 1891 to 1896, inclusive, as personal property,” and to that part of paragraph 20 of the master’s findings which reads as follows, “That all of the taxes described in the bill and in the evidence as having been charged and levied upon improvements upon the land described in the bill constitute a double assessment, in that said assessment on what is designated therein as on improvements is a duplication of the assessment of personal property returned and assessed for each and all of said years.”

All other exceptions to the findings and report of the master were by the court below overruled.