Board of Trade v. Central Stock & Grain Exchange

98 Ill. App. 212, 1901 Ill. App. LEXIS 256
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 21, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 98 Ill. App. 212 (Board of Trade v. Central Stock & Grain Exchange) 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
Board of Trade v. Central Stock & Grain Exchange, 98 Ill. App. 212, 1901 Ill. App. LEXIS 256 (Ill. Ct. App. 1901).

Opinion

Hr. Justice Adams

delivered the opinion of the court.

The sole defense set up in the answers is, that appellee is engaged in conducting a bucket-shop; in other words, that the appellee’s business is such as is prohibited by “ An act to suppress bucket-shops and gambling in stocks, bonds, petroleum, cotton, grain, provisions and other produce,” in force July 1, 1887. 1 S. & C. Eev. Stat. 1896, p. 1304 (laws 1887, 96). Section 1 of the act provides :

“ That it shall be unlawful for any corporation, association, copartnership or person, to keep or cause to bé kept within this State any bucket-shop, office, store or other place wherein is conducted or permitted the pretended buying or selling of the shares of stocks or bonds of any corporation, or petroleum, cotton, grain, provisions or other produce, either on margins or otherwise, without any intention of receiving and paying for the property so bought, or of delivering the property so sold; or wherein is conducted or permitted the pretended buying or selling of such property or margins; or when the party buying any of such property, or offering to buy the same, does not intend actually to receive the same if purchased, or to deliver the same if sold; and the keeping of all such places is hereby prohibited,” etc.

Section 2 of the act is as follows :

“ It shall not be necessary, in order to commit the offense defined in section 1 of this act, that both the buyer and the seller shall agree to do any of the acts therein prohibited, but the said person thus pretending or offering to sell, or thus pretending or offering to buy, whether the offer to sell or buy is accepted or not, and any corporation, association, copartnership or person who shall communicate, receive, exhibit or display, in any manner, any such offer to so buy or sell, or any statements or quotations of the prices of any such property, with a view to any such transaction as aforesaid, shall be deemed an accessory, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined and punished the same as the principal and as provided in section 1 of this act.”

The Supreme Court, in Soby v. The People, 134 Ill. 66, has, in a very careful opinion, stated the object of the act, and what would be violation of it. The.court say:

“ It is manifest that the object of the statute was to suppress and prevent gambling in grain and other commodities.” Ib. 71. Also:
“ A consideration of the act will, as before indicated, show that it is directed against the keeping of any office or place, etc., first, wherein is conducted or permitted the pretended buying or selling of grain or other produce, on margins or otherwise, without any intention of receiving the property bought or delivering it if sold. Under this clause of the first section, the offense consists in keeping the place, etc., where such buying or selling is conducted or permitted. That plaintiff in error kept the office or place is conceded, and that buying and selling upon margins, without any intention on the part of the customer to receive the thing bought or to deliver the thing sold, was permitted in such office or place so kept by the plaintiff in error is also substantially conceded, and if it were not, is abundantly proved. Under this provision of the act, the keeper of such office or place, etc., can not shield himself from criminal responsibility behind the fact that he made no inquiry of his customers. The statute is preventive in its character, and is aimed at the keeping of places where gambling in grain is permitted. The keeper must know that the transaction is not gambling, or, in good faith, have just reason to believe that the buying or selling is not within the intended prohibition of the statute. But if this were not so, there is abundant evidence in this record to show that the plaintiff in error knew that his customers did not contemplate an actual delivery of the commodity bought or sold. Again, the second clause makes it an offense to keep a place, etc., wherein is conducted or permitted the pretended buying or selling of such produce on margins. It is scarcely contended that the customer did not, in fact, intend only to purchase options, and to make money in the rise and fall of the market, without any expectation of receiving or delivering grain. In other words, it is too plain for argument,. that the buying and selling of grain was a mere pretense, at least so far as the customer was concerned. Again, the third clause creates the offense where the party buying such produce, or offering to buy the same, does not intend actually to receive the same if purchased, or to deliver the' same if sold. Here the proof establishes, beyond question, that purchases were made without any intention of receiving the commodity purchased. The onH object was to make money on the fluctuations of the market by the pretended purchase of the grain on margins.”

The evidence in the case is very voluminous. The evidence for the appellants, on whom the court held the burden of proof rested, was mainly directed to proving that the appellee kept a bucket-shop within the meaning of the statute; that the dealing at appellee’s place of business was solely on the market quotations of the Chicago Board of Trade, and that it knowingly permitted the pretended buying and selling by its customers of grain, with reference to such market quotations, and without any intention of receiving the grain ostensibly bought, or delivering that ostensibly sold, their only intention being to make money by the rise or fall of the market, as the case might be.’ Appellee’s evidence was mainly directed to proving that a large part of the business of the Board of Trade of the city of Chicago was similar to that of appellee, namely, that grain was bought and sold on the exchange of the board on margins or stop-orders, without any intention to deliver the grain; and, incidentally, that there were some deliveries by and to appellee.

Appellee does a very large business. It is the lessee of the following telegraph wires, which it uses in its business: From Chicago to Davenport, Iowa; Chicago to Galesburg; Chicago to Louisville, Ky.; Chicago to Milwaukee; Chicago to St. Louis, and another wire from Aurora to Geneva, Ill., and from Canton to Quincy; from Decatur to Sycamore: from Freeport to Gainesville; from Galesburg to Burlington, Iowa; from Green Bay, Wis., to Menominee, Mich.; from Indianapolis, Ind., to Cincinnati, Ohio; from Lafayette, Ind., to Crawfordsville; from Louisville to ¡Nashville, Tenn.; from Milwaukee, Wis., to Oshkosh; from Oshkosh to Green Bay; from Peoria, Ill., to Canton, Ill.; from Pontiac, Ill., to Fairbury, Ill.; from Rockford to Freeport, Ill.; from Springfield, Ill., to Decatur, Ill.; from Sycamore to Rockford, Ill. The wires that do not run to Chicago are part of the same system as the wires running to Chicago, and are connected with appellee’s place of business in Chicago. Appellee has correspondents in places outside of Chicago, who act as brokers, for commission in buying and selling grain, and who send their orders to appellee in Chicago; and the-evidence shows that appellee, although purporting to act as principal in the deals, shares in the commission of its correspondents.

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Bluebook (online)
98 Ill. App. 212, 1901 Ill. App. LEXIS 256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-trade-v-central-stock-grain-exchange-illappct-1901.