Adler v. Dalton

23 Ill. App. 177, 1886 Ill. App. LEXIS 272
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 27, 1887
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Ill. App. 177 (Adler v. Dalton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adler v. Dalton, 23 Ill. App. 177, 1886 Ill. App. LEXIS 272 (Ill. Ct. App. 1887).

Opinion

Lacey, J.

An original bill was filed March 15, 1881, showing the following facts: On the 17th day of August, 1874, the appellee became the mortgagee of a certain tract of land, being forty-seven and thirty-two one hundredths acres situated •in the County of Will, near the City of Joliet, from Susan and John Boane, who were husband and wife, and seized in fee of said land prior to the execution of the said mortgage. The said mortgage was made to secure the sum of $770 loaned by the appellee to said mortgagors and for which they executed their note to the appellee for that sum, due in one year from date, with ten per cent, interest from date, being even date with the mortgage, which mortgage was duly recorded. A mistake was made in the description of the land which was mutual. The said mortgage contained the usual covenants of warranty. One Garrett Van Horn, who had had a prior incmnbrance of $1,500 on the said land in the form of a trust deed, having acquired title by virtue of a trustee’s sale, on account of the failure of said Susan and John Boane to pay said last named incumbrance, conveyed the said land to John Boane, Jr., a son of Susan and John Boane. The bill alleges that the said deed was without consideration; that said John Boane, Jr., had no means to pay for the said real estate and did not in fact pay for it but was only holding it in trust for the use and benefit of his father; that said J ohn Boane, Jr., took the title to the said real estate with full knowledge of all the rights of appellee, legal and equitable; that since the last named transfer, said Susan Boane had died leaving certain heirs which are named and made parties to this suit. Prays that the said last named transfer may be set aside; that the mistake made by the scrivener in drawing appellee’s mortgage may be corrected and'his mortgage foreclosed.

On January 7, 1886, appellant asked Jo become a party defendant to said bill on his own petition, which the court allowed on February 24. 1886, and ordered him to answer. The answer of John Boane, Jr., shows that he had sold the land to appellant, April 22, 1881, and conveyed the same to him in good faith and had delivered possession to him for $2,943, but that $1,500 of the consideration was assumed by appellant, which said Boane, Jr., had' given to Garrett Van Horn for the purchase money of the land, and which was a prior mortgage, and said Boane, Jr., had no title or interest in the land. Appellant also answered. On April 29, 1886, appellee, by leave, amended his bill of complaint which avers knowledge on the part of appellant of all appellee’s equities, and reiterates the charge that John Boane, Jr., “ took the legal title to said real estate in his own name for the purpose of protecting his father, John Boane, Sr., against your orator’s claim and that of his creditors, with the intention of conveying the same to his father, John Boane, Sr., and the said John Boane, Jr., held said title in trust.” On the answer of the various parties and the evidence, the cause went to trial on April 29, 1886, resulting in a decree in favor of appellee and a foreclosure of his mortgage amounting, principal and interest, to $835.29, subject to the Garrett Van Horn mortgage of $1,500.

From tin's decree the appellant takes an appeal to this court. The evidence shows that the appellee’s mortgage was subsequent to the one to Van Horn, and that Van Horn had foreclosed his trust deed by sale of the land which apparently annulled the title of John Boane. Sr., and also the mortgage of appellee. But John Boané, Sr., was not satisfied with allowing the land to go for the price paid for it by Van Horn and made an effort to recover the title. How, it is evident that if John Boane, Sr., had recovered the title of the property in his own name, the mortgage of appellee would at once attach on account of the covenants of warranty in his mortgage from John Boane, Sr., and Susan Boane. Besides, it was an obligation on the part of Susan and John Boane, Sr., to pay off the Van Horn mortgage, which by the covenants of quiet enjoyment and against incumbrances in their mortgage to him, they had undertaken to do. .

The vital issue in this case is whether the charges of the bill are correct, that by procurement of John Boane, Sr., his son stepped in to hold the title in his own name for his father in order to prevent this result. If the proof shows that he did, then clearly the decree is correct. In our opinion there can not be much doubt but that the proof fully sustains the allegations of fraud, and that appellant on his part had full knowledge of appellee’s claim, having read a copy of the original bill filed herein before he purchased, and had notice of it otherwise.

Heither can there be much doubt that the property was worth a great deal more than the amount of the original Van Horn mortgage, and that John Boane, Sr., was claiming over §300 rebatement of Van Horn’s claim for usury taken by him and was claiming some other irregularities in the trustee’s sale. Garrett Van Horn yielded to this demand and agreed to re-convey the land to John Boane, Sr., for the original sum of the mortgage, same interest, the evidence not disclosing how much had been paid by Susan and John Boane before the sale under the trust deed. How, in all good conscience, the appellee should "have had the benefit of this favorable compromise, but after the negotiations had all been made and everything arranged, instead of the deed having been made to John Roane, Sr., according to agreement, young John Roane, his son, a young man without means or any business qualifications whatever, living with his father and mother as a member of the family, only twenty-three years old, steps in and takes the title to the land in his own name, and gives his note and executes a mortgage back on the land to Yan Horn for the §1,500, the entire purchase price, and the advanced interest required to be paid was, as we think the evidence shows, paid out of the money received from the sale of one of his father’s horses. It would seem that these facts appearing without further evidence would be almost, if not quite, sufficient to stamp the transaction as a fraud and a device to prevent appellee from realizing on his mortgage lien. The son was aware of all these circumstances and must have been aware of the fraudulent intent of his father—must have known or at least thought that there was a large margin over the purchase price in the property, i. e., above the Yan Horn claim; and must have known the reason why his father was putting the title in his name. The appellant paid §2,943 for the property and all but the §1,500, which was the original purchase money due Yan Horn represented by young John Roane’s note and mortgage, was paid in cash by appellant, as he says, to John Roane, Jr., and the Yan Horn mortgage he assumed.

Thus .without the outlay of §1, young Roane pockets the sum of §1,443. Can it be believed that John Roane, Jr., kept this money ? Without much doubt it found its way to his father’s pocket. And Walsh testifies that John Roane, Jr., told him that he did not get a nickel out of the sale of the land, only §75.

This is objected to by appellant as being after he had purchased and we must exclude it.

But it is what we are convinced of without such testimony. We are not obliged to rely entirely on these circumstances to show with what intent the son took the title. Walsh testifies that John Roane said in the presence of his son that the reason he had the title taken in the latter’s name was “ to keep any one else from coming on.”

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23 Ill. App. 177, 1886 Ill. App. LEXIS 272, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adler-v-dalton-illappct-1887.