General Grocer Co. v. Bachar

365 N.E.2d 1106, 51 Ill. App. 3d 907, 8 Ill. Dec. 720, 1977 Ill. App. LEXIS 3208
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 11, 1977
Docket76-240
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 365 N.E.2d 1106 (General Grocer Co. v. Bachar) 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
General Grocer Co. v. Bachar, 365 N.E.2d 1106, 51 Ill. App. 3d 907, 8 Ill. Dec. 720, 1977 Ill. App. LEXIS 3208 (Ill. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE SCOTT

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from an order of the Circuit Court of Bureau County which after hearing in a replevin action awarded possession of a grocery store inventory to General Grocer Company of Illinois, hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff, on the grounds that Bruce A. Bachar and Mary Bachar, hereinafter referred to as the defendants, had defaulted in a security agreement which they had entered into with the plaintiff.

The factual situation which ultimately resulted in the litigation commenced in the year 1975 when the defendant Bruce A. Bachar purchased a grocery store in Spring Valley, Illinois. The plaintiff financed this purchase and the original amount owed by the defendants was the sum of *115,909.10. From the record we fail to find that there was any written instrument entered into by the parties regarding this indebtedness as to the time and manner of paying it. In September 1975 the defendants paid the sum of *20,000 on their purchase price indebtedness, thereby leaving a balance to be paid in the sum of *95,909.10.

The defendants purchased groceries from the plaintiff each week and every Monday the plaintiff would compute a bill for the amount of the preceding week’s grocery shipment. The plaintiff after performing such accounting work would write a check payable to itself on an account in the joint names of itself and the defendants. After the check had been presented for payment and honored a copy of the paid bill would then be mailed to the defendants’ store.

The plaintiff and defendants did enter into a written security agreement, the pertinent provisions of which are as follows:

“V. Until default or breach by the undersigned of any provision hereof, or until notified by Lender to the contrary, the undersigned may use, consume, exhibit, sell or otherwise dispose of the Inventory in carrying on the business of the undersigned in the ordinary course substantially in the manner as now conducted
O # #
VI. If the undersigned shall fail to pay when due, any note or any other of the undersigned’s indebtedness to Lender, or should breach any other provision hereof, Lender shall have the right to proceed against the collateral or any part thereof.
VII. No failure or delay by Lender in exercising any right or remedy hereunder or otherwise shall operate as a waiver thereof. A waiver of any such right or remedy must be in writing and shall be limited to the specific instance and to the right or remedy expressly waived * *

The store’s inventory merchandise and certain fixtures were collateral for the security agreement.

While the defendants may have been tardy in two or possibly three instances in making a deposit in the joint account for the payment of the groceries received by them for the preceding week from the plaintiff, the great majority of the time the defendants conformed to the agreement and practice of making the required deposit on each Monday.

Grocery shipments were made by the plaintiff to the defendants for the week of January 5, 1976; however, on Monday, January 12, 1976, the defendants failed to deposit in the joint account a sum of money sufficient to pay the plaintiff’s billing in the amount of *8,587.12 for the preceding week’s delivery. The defendants had used some of the proceeds from the sale of groceries for the preceding week to pay other creditors.

On January 13,1976, Mr. Hargis, representing the plaintiff, went to the defendants’ store and requested payment of the *8,587.12. The defendant Bruce A. Bachar indicated that he did not have the money since he was paying other creditors. On the following day Hargis again saw the defendant and both orally and in writing gave the defendants notice of their default in payment of the underlying obligation of *95,909.10 and of the payment of *8,587.12. Hargis further demanded possession of the collateral and directed the defendants to cease selling the pledged collateral. The defendant Bruce A. Bachar indicated that he couldn’t pay the amounts owed and that he would continue to sell collateral and he in fact continued to do so until January 16, 1976, on which date a writ of replevin was issued against the defendants. The writ was served on the defendants the following day.

On February 18,1976, after a trial on the issues the trial court ruled that the plaintiff was entitled to possession of the grocery store’s inventory and other collateral set forth in the security agreement because the defendants were in default in two respects, first in continuing to sell collateral after the demand of January 14,1976, and secondly in failing to pay the sum of *8,587.12. The trial court expressly stated that it was not making any ruling as to whether there was a default for failure to pay the underlying obligation of *95,909.10. This appeal ensued.

The defendants raise several issues in this appeal, the first being that there was not sufficient evidence adduced during the course of the trial to establish an agreement requiring the defendants to pay for weekly grocery deliveries on a certain date.

In support of this contention the defendants assert that all of the documents signed by them were silent as to time of payment. Further they argue that the plaintiff’s claim that they were in default is based upon the testimony of Hargis, an employee of the plaintiff, concerning vague and oral statements he made to the defendants about the plaintiff’s billing policy. The defendants state that there was no valid contract in issue between the parties because there was never a meeting of the minds of the parties.

Directing our attention to the weekly payment by the defendants for groceries received we find that the record belies their argument. When the defendants began operating their store they followed the practice of depositing on each Monday in the joint account a sufficient sum of money to pay for the cost of groceries supplied to them during the preceding week by the plaintiff. As we have stated they may have been tardy on two or possibly three occasions during December 1975; however, within a matter of two or three days they made up their deficit in each instance. It was not until January 12,1976, that the defendants flatly refused to make the usual weekly deposit in the joint account. An even more compelling refutation of the defendants’ argument that there was no meeting of the minds of the parties is established by the testimony of the defendant Bruce A. Bachar. On direct examination he stated:

“Overdue meant that the bill for the previous week’s groceries was due on Monday. On Monday, the payment for the preceding week’s groceries was due.”

On cross-examination the same defendant stated:

“On Monday, January 12, the sum of *8487.00 was due for the week’s preceding billings. I did not pay that bill and there were not sufficient funds deposited to cover that amount.”

While the defendant Bruce A.

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Bluebook (online)
365 N.E.2d 1106, 51 Ill. App. 3d 907, 8 Ill. Dec. 720, 1977 Ill. App. LEXIS 3208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-grocer-co-v-bachar-illappct-1977.