Becker v. Hooper

263 Ill. App. 18, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 863
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedOctober 9, 1931
DocketGen. No. 34,897
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 263 Ill. App. 18 (Becker v. Hooper) 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
Becker v. Hooper, 263 Ill. App. 18, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 863 (Ill. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Scahlan

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff in error has sued out this writ of error to review a decree of the superior court of Cook county dismissing his petition for want of equity.

The respondent, Celle Becker, hereinafter called the defendant in error, filed her bill in the circuit court of Cook county praying that a sale to plaintiff in error of her real estate by the bailiff of the municipal court of Chicago under an execution issued out of that court on a judgment against her be set aside. The hill also prayed for an injunction to restrain plaintiff in error from assigning the certificate of sale or obtaining a deed by reason of the sale. On April 13,1928, that bill was dismissed for want of equity and defendant in error appealed to the Supreme Court, where the decree of the circuit court was affirmed, in June, 1930. (See Becker v. Hooper, 340 Ill. 98.) It appears from the opinion filed in that case that what purported to be a certificate of the evidence on which the decree of the circuit court was based, was stricken from the record on motion of the plaintiff in error, and that the decree was affirmed for the reason that all of the errors assigned were based on matters contained in the said certificate of evidence. While the appeal in that case was pending the defendant in error filed, in the superior court of Cook county, on May 26, 1928, her bill against plaintiff in error for an injunction pendente lite. The bill prayed that the plaintiff in error be restrained from collecting or attempting to collect the rents due from tenants of the building in question and from commencing any action against any of the tenants of the building, and that he be restrained from prosecuting any of the actions and proceedings he had already commenced against the tenants in the building, etc., pending the determination of the appeal from the decree in the circuit court case, then pending in the Supreme Court. A decree was entered in the superior court case, on June 19, 1928, finding that the defendant in error, on January 2,1924, acquired by purchase, for the sum of $350,000, the premises in question, consisting of certain land and the improvements thereon; that since January 2, 1924, she has continued to be the owner in fee simple of said premises and has since said date occupied the premises as her homestead. The decree recites the commencement of the suit in the circuit court and the proceedings thereunder and the decree entered therein, and that an appeal had been taken and was then pending in the. Supreme Court; that the real estate is improved by an 18 flat brick and stone building, “one of which apartments is six rooms and is occupied by the complainant and her family as her own and has been so occupied for the past five years; that all of the other flats are occupied by tenants”; that after the entry of the decree in the circuit court the plaintiff in error, by threats, demands and various actions at law, attempted to obtain possession of the premises and large sums of money due and owing from the tenants of the building; that he has served notice on the various tenants during April and May, 1928, that he was the owner of the building and demanding that they pay rents to him; that he has commenced divers actions in the municipal court of Chicago against said tenants; that the court finds that unless an order is entered against him restraining him from his attempts to take possession of the building and to collect the rents of the same during the pend-ency of the appeal, he will continue his said acts to the great and irreparable damage, etc., of defendant in error; that “the court further finds that it has jurisdiction of the parties hereto and of the subject matter of this cause; that in the event the decree of said circuit court is affirmed by said Supreme Court then the complainant shall give to said defendant an accounting with respect to the rents, receipts and income of said property from the date hereof until the entry of the order of said Supreme Court affirming said decree of said circuit court, if, as and when the same shall or may be done and that such accounting shall be without prejudice as to either of said parties. The court further finds that during the pendency of said appeal the complainant is entitled to the possession of said premises and to the rents, receipts and income therefrom without any interference by the said defendant James H. Hooper or by those claiming by, through, or under him, subject to accounting as hereinbefore set forth.” Then followed the injunctional order. On November 2, 1928, the plaintiff in error sued the defendant in error and the American Surety Company of New York, a corporation, in the municipal court of Chicago, upon an injunction bond given by the defendant in error, as principal, and American Surety Company, as surety, in the aforesaid proceeding* in the circuit court of Cook county. This cause was tried before the court, with a jury, and there was a verdict returned that the plaintiff take nothing by his suit and that the defendants recover from him their costs. From a judgment entered on the verdict the plaintiff in error appealed to this court, and on July 3, 1929, we filed an opinion affirming the judgment of the municipal court. (See James H. Hooper and B. W. Snow, Bailiff v. Celle Becker and American Surety Co. of New York, Gen. No. 33,347, 254 Ill. App. 606.) Thereafter the Supreme Court denied the plaintiff in error a certiorari in that cause. In our opinion we state that the amended statement of claim of the plaintiff in error alleges the following: “That the defendant Becker was, on February 6,1926, the owner of lots 10,11 and 12 in Block 5 in Cochran’s Addition to Edgewater; that on the said date Broadway-Sheridan Building Co. obtained a judgment for $700 against her; that on February 8, 1926, an execution was issued thereon, and on April 21, 1926, under said execution the bailiff ‘sold all interest of said Becker’ to plaintiff Hooper for $749.25; that the period of redemption expired on July 21, 1927; that the property was not redeemed and plaintiff Hooper was entitled to a deed thereon, and to all the rents from July 21, 1927, or as soon thereafter as a bailiff’s deed might issue, and demand be made" upon the tenants for possession after the deed had been issued; that on September 2, 1927, said Becker filed a bill for injunction in the circuit court of Cook county and procured an injunction restraining said Hooper from obtaining a deed; that an answer was filed and a trial had, and on April 3, 1928, the court entered a final decree dismissing said bill of complaint for want of equity at complainant’s costs; that said decree in legal effect dissolved the injunction; that said injunction had been issued upon the filing by said Becker of an injunction bond in the sum. of $1,500; that said defendants, on September 2, 1927, entered into and executed said injunction bond (a copy of which was filed in that case as the instrument sued on); that said injunction bond was approved before the injunction was issued; that by reason of said injunction plaintiff Hooper was prevented from securing a bailiff’s deed and from demanding possession from said tenants and from receiving the rents for said premises from September 2,1927, to April 13,1928; that the monthly rental of said premises was more than $4,000 per month, and said rents for said period were collected by said Becker and converted to her own use, and that she converted to her ovni use more than $1,500, which amount plaintiff has been damag’ed, wherefore plaintiff asks judgment for $1,500 debt and $1,500 damages.” We further find from the opinion that the amended affidavit of merits of the defendant in error in that cause avers (inter alia):

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Hudson v. Hooper
265 Ill. App. 325 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1932)

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Bluebook (online)
263 Ill. App. 18, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 863, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/becker-v-hooper-illappct-1931.