Gannon v. Moles

70 N.E. 689, 209 Ill. 180
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedApril 20, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 70 N.E. 689 (Gannon v. Moles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gannon v. Moles, 70 N.E. 689, 209 Ill. 180 (Ill. 1904).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Magruder

delivered the opinion of the court:

The question, presented by the record, is largely a question of fact; and that question of fact is, whether, under the circumstances shown by the evidence, the farm, formerly owned by the plaintiff in error, was purchased by the defendant in error, Moles, or whether he held the title thereto as mortgagee merely, subject to redemption by plaintiff in error.

The material facts are substantially as follows: On and before October 14, 1893, plaintiff in error was indebted in the sum of about $5830.68 to the defendant in error, Jacob Haish, of DeKalb county, and, in order to secure such indebtedness, conveyed to Haish her farm of two hundred and twenty acres in Kane county by an absolute deed of conveyance. By the terms of the deed the grantor, Bridget Gannon, a widow, of the town of Virgil in Kane county, conveys, for the expressed consideration of $5830.68, to Jacob Haish of the city of DeKalb in DeKalb county, the fat;m in question, which deed was recorded on November 7, 1893. At the same time, to-wit, on October 14, 1893, articles of agreement were executed between Jacob Haish of the first part, and Bridget Gannon of the second part, wherein it was provided that, if the party of the second part should first make payment and perform the covenants thereinafter mentioned on her part to be made and performed, said party of the first part, covenanted and agreed to convey to the party of the second part in fee simple, subject to the same encumbrances as were then' on the land, the said farm by a good and sufficient warranty deed; and the party of the second part thereby covenanted and agreed to pay to the said party of the first part the sum of $5339.77 two years after date, with interest at seven per cent. This defeasance, or article of agreement, was signed by both Jacob Haish and Bridget Gannon under their seals. "

The deed, so executed by plaintiff in error to the defendant in error, Haish, though absolute on its face, was a mortgage, when considered in connection with the written defeasance executed simultaneously with it. “The doctrine is well settled that a deed, absolute in terms, if intended to secure an indebtedness, is a mortgage whether the intention is manifested by a written defeasance, by parol declarations, or by the acts of the parties.”' (Cassem v. Heustis, 201 Ill. 208, and cases cited on p. 215). Indeed, it is not denied by either of the parties to this litigation that the deed and defeasance above described constituted a mortgage as between the plaiiftiff in error and defendant in error, Haish.

The evidence shows that Haish held one or more mortgages, or other evidences of indebtedness, against the plaintiff in error besides that represented by the deed and defeasance, as above set forth. About January, 1895,' Haish began to press the plaintiff in error for the payment of her indebtedness to him, and the plaintiff in error applied to the defendant in error, Moles, who was her son-in-law, the husband of her daughter, Katie, to assist her in her pecuniary troubles. On January 11 and 12, 1895, meetings were held at the bank of Haish in DeKalb for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the indebtedness of plaintiff in error to Haish, and for the purpose of consummating the arrangement, which is claimed by Moles to have been a sale of the' farm to him, and by plaintiff in error to have been merely a mortgage of the farm by her to Moles. At one or both of the meetings on January 11 and 12, there were present Haish and Mrs. Gannon, the plaintiff in error, and her two sons, Edward L. Gannon and William P. Gannon, and Moles, the defendant in error, and R. N. Botsford, who appeared to act as attorney for both Moles and Mrs. Gannon. The whole matter was settled and arranged in the manner herein stated on the afternoon of January 12, 1895, the parties differing in their testimony as to the precise hour in the afternoon when the business was concluded. At that time Haish, holding the title to the farm, with the consent of Mrs. Gannon, executed a deed of the farm to Moles. This deed bears, date January 12, 1895, and is signed by Jacob Haish and his wife, and conveys to Fred R. Moles of Chicago, the farm in question, for an expressed consideration of $8661.58. The sum of $8661.58 was there ascertained to be the amount of the indebtedness, due from plaintiff in error to Haish, and this amount was agreed upon as such indebtedness by all the parties. The whole amount of the consideration named in the deed was not then paid by Moles to Haish; but Moles paid to Haish $2661.58 in cash, and executed to Haish a mortgage upon the farm of two hundred and twenty acres, so deeded to him by Haish, to secure a note for $6000.00, payable five years after date with interest payable annually at the rate of six per cent per annum. The payment of $2661.58, and the execution of the mort- : gage for $6000.00, settled the indebtedness of plaintiff in error to Haish.

On October 14, 1893, the day, on which the defeasance was executed by Haish a,nd Mrs. Gannon, she by endorsement thereon assigned and transferred, for the expressed consideration of $1000.00, all her right, title and interest in and to said defeasance or contract to her two sons. William P. Gannon and Edward L. Gannon. This written assignment was signed by Mrs. Gannon. It is not altogether clear from the evidence what the object of this assignment to her sons was. She had another son, named Tom Gannon, with whom she had had some litigation, and Tom Gannon held against her a judgment for $1000.00, upon which he subsequently filed against her a creditor’s bill. Whether at that time she actually owed her sons, William and Edward, a debt, for the security of which she transferred her contract with Haish to them, or whether the assignment to them was made for the purpose of preventing the enforcement of the judgment of her son, Tom, against the property, is not altogether clear.

On January 11, 1895, William and Edward Gannon, by a written instrument, executed under their hands and seals, for an expressed consideration of $3000.00, sold, assigned and transferred unto Fred R. Moles all their right, title and interest in and to said contract, therein designated “the within contract,” with full power and authority to Moles to exercise all rights and privileges therein granted to them. On January 11 and 12,1895, Molés paid to Edward and William Gannon in cash, $338.42. At the same time he executed his three notes, one for $1000.00 payable on or before October 14, 1895, to the order of Edward Gannon, with interest at six per cent; one for $1000.00 payable one year after date to the order of William P. and Edward Gannon, with interest at six per cent; and another for $1000.00 payable on or before October 14,1895, to the order of William Gannon, with interest at six per cent. The sum of $8661.58, paid by Moles to Haish in cash and by mortgage as above stated, and the check for $338.42 paid to Edward and William Gannon, and the three notes, each for $1000.00 payable, one to the order of Edward and William Gannon both, and one to the order of Edward Gannon alone, and the other to the order of William Gannon alone, made altogether the sum of $12,000.00.

Defendant in error, Moles, claims that he bought the farm from his mother-in-law, Mrs. Gannon, for $12,000.00, and paid for it by discharging her indebtedness to Haish, and by paying to her sons $3338.42 in the check and notes above mentioned.

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Bluebook (online)
70 N.E. 689, 209 Ill. 180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gannon-v-moles-ill-1904.