Baker v. Brown

18 N.E.2d 578, 298 Ill. App. 173
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 14, 1939
DocketGen. No. 40,154
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 18 N.E.2d 578 (Baker v. Brown) 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
Baker v. Brown, 18 N.E.2d 578, 298 Ill. App. 173 (Ill. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

Mr. Justice John J, Sullivan

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a judgment for $6,419.07 entered by the circuit court of Cook county against defondant, Adelbert Brown, based upon a foreign judgment rendered in the district court of Oklahoma county, State of Oklahoma. Plaintiff herein, John B. Baker, as trustee, was plaintiff in thé suit in which the foreign judgment was entered and the defendants in that action were M. E. Durham, Gordon Stater and the defendant in the instant case,. Adelbert Brown.

The only question presented for our determination is whether the trial court erred in giving full faith and credit to the foreign judgment.

The petition filed in the proceeding in which the foreign judgment was entered included 12 causes of action, the allegations of the statements of claim of each of which were identical except as to the naipes of the claimants, who were plaintiff’s assignors, the amounts sought to be recovered upon their respective claims and the amounts of certain judgments, theretofore entered and later vacated, upon which their claims were based. Said petition alleged substantially that M. E. Durham, doing business as the Taxpayers ’ Association, had contracted with the parties named in the several counts of the petition to recover for them certain taxes which they had theretofore paid under protest, for a commission of 25 per cent in some instances and 33% per cent in others; that Durham employed a law firm, the partnership of Brown & Stater, upon a fee basis of 11 per cent of the gross amount recovered, to bring suits for the refund of the taxes paid under protest; that certain refunds were procured but that the judgments under which said refunds were made were thereafter set aside by reason of fraud in their procurement and the taxpayers were compelled to pay to the county treasurer of Oklahoma county the full amount of the sums refunded.

The petition, after reciting the foregoing* facts and incorporating therein the contracts and other written exhibits relied upon, alleged specifically that “the said Brown & Stater received and took and still retain and refuse to pay to this plaintiff eleven per cent of the amount temporarily recovered by them. ’ ’ It was then alleged that there was due and owing to plaintiff for the use and benefit of the twelve taxpayer claimants “from the defendant, M. E. Durham, as an individual and as one doing business under the name of the Taxpayers Association, and from Adelbert Brown and Gordon Stater, both as individuals and as partners doing business under the name of Brown & Stater,” the sum of $4,744.39 with interest at 6 per cent from January 20, 1930, until paid. This $4,744.39 represented as to some of the claimants 25 per cent and as to others 33% per cent of the amount of the taxes recovered, which said taxpayer claimants had contracted to pay Durham and which the latter presumably received out of the money refunded as a result of the judgments which were later vacated. Eleven per cent of the gross amount of the foresaid judgments, or $2,061.64, was the amount specifically alleged to have been received and wrongfully retained by Brown. $6,419.07, the amount of the judgment entered in the case at bar against Brown, represented the original judgment for $4,744.39 entered against Brown in the Oklahoma court, accrued interest thereon and costs advanced by plaintiff in instituting this suit, less payments aggregating $375 made by Stater and a certain credit for $366.57.

Defendant, Brown, was served personally with summons in the Oklahoma proceeding and was defaulted for want of appearance. The judgment order entered in that case after finding “that Adelbert Brown and Gordon Stater as partners doing business under the firm name of Brown & Stater, are liable to the plaintiff for 11% of the gross or total amount of money obtained from the County Treasurer of Oklahoma County for the 12 taxpayers herein involved, under the original journal entries in the case of Abernathy v. Bonaparte, . . . which were subsequently set aside, which said 11% amounts to $2,061.64, with interest at 6% from January 20th, 1930, until paid . . ., and that M. E. Durham and Adelbert Brown, jointly and severally are liable to the plaintiff for said same sum of $2,061.64, with interest as aforesaid, and that said M. E. Durham and Adelbert Brown, jointly and severally, are also liable to the plaintiff for the additional sum of $2,682.75, with interest at 6% from January 20th, 1930, until paid,” ordered “that plaintiff, John R. Baker, as Trustee, do have and recover of and from the defendants, Brown & Stater, a co-partnership composed of Adelbert Brown and Gordon Stater, both of which were personally served with summons herein, the sum of $2,061.64 with interest at 6% from Jánuary 20th, 1930,” and further ordered “that the plaintiff, John R. Baker, as Trustee, do have and recover said sum of $2,061.64, with interest at the rate of 6% per annum from Januarv 20th, 1930, until paid, ... of and from M. E. Durham and Adelbert Brown and each of them and that in addition to said sum of $2,061.64, with interest . . . plaintiff do have and recover of and from M. E. Durham and Adelbert Brown and each of them the additional sum of $2,682.75, with interest at 6% from Janu-° ary 20th, 1930, making the total amount to be recovered by plaintiff from M. E. Durham and Adelbert Brown, and each of them, the sum of $4,744.39 with interest at 6% from January 20th, 1930, until paid.” (Italics ours.)

Defendant’s contentions as stated in his brief are as follows: ‘ ‘ The judgment rendered herein is based upon the foreign judgment of $4,744.39, which is the full amount Durham received, and not the eleven per cent which Brown and Stater received. This foreign judgment for $4,744.39 is void, being rendered for an amount in excess of the scope of the pleading’s and not responsive to the issues in the case.

“The foreign judgment is valid only insofar as it renders a judgment against Brown for $2,061.64, the eleven per cent paid to Brown and Stater. . . . This, however, is not the foreign judgment upon which judgment was rendered in the case at bar. ’ ’

In support of his position that the foreign judgment should be given full faith and credit by the courts of this State, plaintiff maintains “(1) that the foreign court had jurisdiction of the person and of the subject matter; (2) that the foreign petition or declaration construed in its entirety does fully support the foreign judgment sued upon; and (3) that if said petition or declaration does not fully support said foreign judgment, the defect is not jurisdictional, constitutes error only, and can only be raised by a direct attack in the foreign court.”

It is true that all of the statements of claim, as set forth in the several counts of plaintiff’s petition filed in his action in the Oklahoma court, concluded with the general allegation that “there is now due, owing and unpaid to the plaintiff, John R. Baker, as trustee, for the use and benefit” of the respective claimants, “from the defendant, M. E.

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Bluebook (online)
18 N.E.2d 578, 298 Ill. App. 173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baker-v-brown-illappct-1939.