Greenberg v. Neiman

49 N.E.2d 817, 320 Ill. App. 99, 1943 Ill. App. LEXIS 551
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 30, 1943
DocketGen. No. 42,348
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 49 N.E.2d 817 (Greenberg v. Neiman) 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
Greenberg v. Neiman, 49 N.E.2d 817, 320 Ill. App. 99, 1943 Ill. App. LEXIS 551 (Ill. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Hebel

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the municipal court entered April 13,1942, on a finding by the court confirming an original judgment by confession entered on December 6, 1937, for $809.79 and costs.

The pleadings in the case consist of '(1) statement of claim and cognovit, filed December 3, 1937; (2) petition to vácate judgment filed by the defendant November 17, 1941; (3) amended petition to vacate the judgment, filed December 8, 1941, which by order of court stood as the affidavit of defense; and (4) plaintiff’s answer to the amended petition, filed December 13,- 1941.

No question is raised as to the pleadings that were filed in the instant case.

On July 26, 1936, at Hillsboro, Montgomery county, Illinois, defendant executed a series of seven notes, each in the sum of $100, payable one each month, commencing November 1,1936, to the order of plaintiff at the Hillsboro National Bank. The notes are on printed forms of the Hillsboro National Bank. Statement of claim and cognovit was filed on December 3, 1937, in the municipal court of Chicago, after the maturity of the first two of the notes but before the maturity of the remaining five. Leave was granted to the defendant, on February 10, 1942, to appear and make defense. Defendant’s amended petition was filed December 8, 1941, standing by direction of the court as the affidavit of defense. On trial before the court, defendant offered evidence, to show that the notes, upon which judgment was confessed, were executed at Hillsboro, Illinois, outside of the county of Cook, and that at the time of the entry of judgment by confession and continuously thereafter and to the date of the hearing, he was not a resident of the city of Chicago, or county of Cook. No evidence was offered by the plaintiff. It is suggested by the defense that the defendant’s answer therefore stands uneontradicted.

Defendant lived in Chicago prior to 1922, when he moved to Argos, Indiana, living there between 1922 and 1930. In 1928 he commenced his business, organizing an Indiana corporation, the Chicago Garment Co., located at La Pórte, Indiana. The defendant was a stockholder, director and president óf that company which has engaged in business continuously at La Porte, Indiana since 1928. In 1930 he left Argos and moved to La Porte, Indiana, where he acquired ownership of a farm in La Porte county, Route No. 1, and has lived there continuously since 1930 to the present time, except for temporary residence, during the winter months, in the Town of La Porte at 907 Indiana avenue, so that he would be near his business, the farm being five miles distant. In addition to the ownership of the farm he also owned two half-sections of land in La Porte county in 1936 and 1937. He voted in La Porte, Indiana. He maintained his bank account at the First National Bank at La Porte, Indiana. He paid the gross income tax, levied by the State of Indiana. He paid personal property taxes in La Porte. Throughout this period he maintained his office at La Porte and carried on negotiations with a stock broker, in Chicago, by telephone from La Porte.

During the period from 1930 to the present defendant’s family, consisting of his wife and children, resided in Chicago, Illinois, where his wife maintained an apartment together with his wife’s parents and defendant’s father. The defendant made week-end visits to Chicago about once a month, such visits usually commencing on Sunday mornings and terminating Sunday evenings. It is apparent from his testimony that the maintenance of an apartment by his wife and children and by his wife’s parents and the defendant’s father was a matter of convenience because of the attendance by the defendant’s children at schools in Chicago, and possibly tbe necessity for maintenance of this residence, in Chicago, by the wife and parents for their convenience. The rent on the Chicago apartment was paid by the wife, and the defendant said that he believed the lease was either signed by his wife or the parents bnt not by him. His name was not listed in the Chicago Telephone Directory whereas his wife’s name was listed. His wife maintained her own brokerage account.

The statements made here appear from the evidence offered by the defendant. As we have already indicated there was none offered by the plaintiff.

It is also suggested by the defense that the negative facts as to whether the defendant maintained a residence in Chicago on the date of the entry of the judgment or at any time thereafter were: He did not maintain a place of business in Chicago; owned no real estate or personal property in Chicago, he had no bank account in Chicago; and he did not pay any personal property taxes in Cook county. It also appeared that he did not vote in Chicago, and, in fact, says that he last lived in Chicago in 1922. The agreement between plaintiff and defendant and the notes in question were executed at Hillsboro, Illinois, the defendant being represented by attorneys of Hillsboro, Illinois. There was no evidence offered by the plaintiff in this connection and the question is whether the judgment of the municipal court is void for want of jurisdiction.

Rule No. 185 of the Revised Civil Practice Rules of the municipal court, as amended October 1, 1937, is as follows:

“By whom and when judgments may be confessed.
“Any person for a debt bona fide due may confess judgment by himself or attorney, duly authorized, without process: Provided, however, that no such judgment shall be confessed in the Municipal Court in pursuance of any warrant of attorney in writing unless the note or obligation upon which the same is based was executed in the County of Cook, or one or more of the makers of such note or obligation is a resident of such county at'the time the judgment is confessed. For the purpose of this rule a corporation, a copartnership or an individual carrying on business in the County of Cook shall be deemed a resident of said county.”

The note to Eule No. 185, as formulated by the municipal court, is as follows:

“1. This rule as amended conforms with Section 50(5) of the Civil Practice Act as amended in 1935 (Laws of 1935, p. 1072) which provides that an application to confess judgment shall be made in the county in which the note or obligation was executed or in the county where one or more of the defendants reside.
“2. The rule does not deal with substantive law. If it did Section 13 of Article IY of the Constitution would make it invalid. (Ginsberg v. Ginsberg, 361 Ill. 499.) Confessions of judgments are purely matters of practice and have never been dealt with in legislation otherwise than in practice acts.”

Defendant’s petition or affidavit of defense alleges that the notes upon which the judgment was confessed, were executed at Hillsboro, Illinois and that at the time of the entry of judgment, December 6, 1937, the defendant was not then a resident of the city of Chicago or county of Cook, and it is suggested that the evidence of the defendant clearly sustains these two allegations of fact as alleged in the pleadings and it would therefore appear that the court had no jurisdiction to enter judgment by confession, and it is urged that the judgment should have been vacated and set aside.

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Bluebook (online)
49 N.E.2d 817, 320 Ill. App. 99, 1943 Ill. App. LEXIS 551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greenberg-v-neiman-illappct-1943.