Gunning v. Sorg

73 N.E. 870, 214 Ill. 616
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 21, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 73 N.E. 870 (Gunning v. Sorg) 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
Gunning v. Sorg, 73 N.E. 870, 214 Ill. 616 (Ill. 1905).

Opinion

Per Curiam :

The appellees Sorg applied for and obtained leave to file in this court a certified copy of the brief and argument filed in behalf of the appellant, Gunning, in the Appellate Court, for the purpose of establishing that the appellant, who was plaintiff in error in the Appellate Court, did not in that court present any question touching the sufficiency of the evidence to support the decree or relating to the necessity for or lack of a certificate of evidence in the case. The brief and argument filed in pursuance of this notice support this contention of the appellees Sorg. Counsel for the appellant, in opposition, have, by leave given, filed the affidavit of Francis C. Russell, one of their number, who therein states that he argued the case orally in the. Appellate Court, and in such oral argument insisted that because of the lack of a certificate of evidence in the record and the insufficiency of recitals in the decree nothing could be considered as established, as a matter of fact, except such matters as appeared by way of admissions in the pleadings. Rule 15 of this court provides that if it becomes important to know what questions were raised and submitted to the Appellate Court for decision, certified copies of the briefs and argument filed and used in that court may be filed in this court after leave granted. The proper construction of this rule would exclude a resort to affidavits as a means of determining what points were brought to the attention of the Appellate Court for decision. It appearing from the brief and argument filed in behalf of the appellant in the Appellate Court that no question was mooted in that court relative to the sufficiency or insufficiency of. the evidence to support the decree, or that the decree should be reversed for the alleged want of a certificate of evidence and alleged insufficiency of the recitals of fact in the decree, those contentions cannot be urged in this court for the first time. Sutter v. Rose, 169 Ill. 66; Abend v. Endowment Fund, 174 id. 96.

We think the court properly permitted the lessor, Sorg, to interplead in the foreclosure proceeding instituted by Phillips. He had then pending an action in forcible detainer, but the court had, through a receiver, taken possession of the premises. The leased property was in custodia legis. The action in forcible detainer had been instituted before the appointment of the receiver, but any attempt to enforce a judgment entered in the cause authorizing the lessor, Sorg, to interfere with the possession of the receiver would have been adjudged a contempt of the court which appointed the receiver. (St. Louis, Alton and Springfield Railroad Co. v. Hamilton, 158 Ill. 366.) Equity would afford Sorg a remedy to cancel the deed of trust which Gunning had executed to Phillips without the knowledge or consent of Sorg and in violation of the conditions of the lease, and this equitable relief might well be sought through the medium of an intervening bill filed in the proceeding in equity which Phillips had instituted to foreclose his mortgage. Moreover, Phillips voluntarily amended his bill and made Sorg a party defendant thereto, and his standing in this proceeding was thereby clearly established.

The chancellor heard the case upon the issues made under the original bill and the intervening petition, and determined that the equities were with the intervening petitioner and that the bill filed by the appellee Phillips for foreclosure of his mortgage was without equity and should be dismissed. This finding was correct, for the reason that the trust deed which Phillips sought to foreclose had been executed in violation of the condition of the lease, to the prejudice of the rights of the lessor. The attempt to cause the rents and issues of the leased premises to be devoted, through the medium of the receiver, to the payment of the indebtedness which the unauthorized deed of trust had been given to secure, was unjust and inequitable as against the lessor, Sorg. Sorg was entitled to a decree canceling the trust deed; declaring that he was entitled to have the amounts which the receiver had in his hands, paid to him in discharge pro tanto of the unpaid installments of rent; that the receiver should be discharged and the bill for foreclosure dismissed at the cost of appellee Phillips.

Phillips, with the consent and perhaps the connivance of' Gunning, having brought the premises into the control and subject to the disposition of the court of equity, they made an offer in open court for the purpose of setting aside the forfeiture that had been declared. The court entertained the offer, and by the first decree ordered that upon the performance of the same the lease should be adjudged to be and remain in full force and effect, but upon a failure to comply with the conditions therein specified within the time limited the lease should be declared to be ended and determined, and Sorg should be let into the possession of the premises and the receiver should surrender possession to him. Phillips and Gunning failed to comply with the conditions offered them by that decree, and by the supplemental decree the trust deed and lease were declared null and void, and it was ordered that the receiver, or any of the parties to the cause in possession of the premises, should deliver possession to Sorg. It is urged that the latter decree was wrong, for the reason that a court of equity will not enforce a forfeiture. It is familiar doctrine that a court of equity will not actively interfere to enforce a forfeiture. (i Pomeroy’s Eq. Jur. sec. 459.) But it is equally well settled that when a court of equity has acquired jurisdiction over a cause for any purpose it may go on to a complete adjudication, and may establish purely legal rights and grant legal remedies which would otherwise be beyond the scope of its authority. In such a case it will not remit a party to his remedy at law, but will decide all issues and make a decree granting full relief to all the parties. (Ibid. 181, 236.) In suits in equity where the right of possession of real property is involved, it is not only proper, but the duty of the court, on the completion of the suit, to put the successful claimant in possession of the premises. (Harding v. LeMoyne, 114 Ill. 65.) Although a bill in equity cannot be maintained merely for the enforcement of a legal right, if the controversy contains any equitable feature which authorizes a court of equity to take cognizance, that court will retain jurisdiction for all purposes and will establish merely legal rights and grant legal remedies. (Stickney v. Goudy, 132 Ill. 213.) In Link Belt Machinery Co. v. Hughes, 195 Ill. 413, it was said that a court of equity having by its receiver taken possession of appellee’s property in that case, and having, by its orders taken his rights under its protection, was bound to protect him without driving him to a suit at law to enforce such rights. That rule applies here. Phillips, the complainant in the original bill, invoked the jurisdiction of a court of equity for the foreclosure of the trust deed and prayed for the appointment of a receiver to take possession of the premises. Gunning entered his appearance and expressly consented to the appointment of the receiver. The receiver was appointed and the property was thereby brought under the control of the court to be disposed of according to the rights of the parties, and the court, having acquired jurisdiction, might then adjudge the rights of all parties to the suit although it involved the granting of legal remedies. (17 Ency. of PL & Pr. sec.

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Bluebook (online)
73 N.E. 870, 214 Ill. 616, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gunning-v-sorg-ill-1905.