In the Circuit Court of the United States for the Second Judicial Circuit and Southern District of New York, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, and Phillips D. Winston, and William C. Sheldon, George R. Sheldon, William S.P. Prentice and William C. Sheldon, Jr., as copartners comprising the firm of W.C. Sheldon & Co., complainants, against Northern Pacific Railroad Company, defendant