Haffenberg v. 1030 North Dearborn Bldg. Corp.

86 F.2d 187, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 3689
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 28, 1936
DocketNo. 5822
StatusPublished

This text of 86 F.2d 187 (Haffenberg v. 1030 North Dearborn Bldg. Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haffenberg v. 1030 North Dearborn Bldg. Corp., 86 F.2d 187, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 3689 (7th Cir. 1936).

Opinion

SPARKS, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order of the District Court directing appellant to pay to Ward Castle, trustee of the debtor, the sum of $2,941.11 which had been retained by appellant as and for his attorney’s fees, out of funds belonging to the debtor which were in his possession and control.

The order of the court recites that appellant had theretofore been allowed $3,000 as attorney’s fees by the same District Court in another case then pending in the court, which had not yet been paid to appellant. At the request of the trustee of the debtor, the court, in the order appealed from, thereupon ordered that an equitable lien for the judgment of $2,941.11, and interest, should be attached in favor of the trustee to the fees allowed appellant in this other cause.

The facts out of which this controversy arises are substantially as follows: In April, 1931, the Chicago Title and Trust Company, as trustee (hereinafter referred to as the Trust Company), filed in the Superior Court of Cook County, Illinois, a bill to foreclose a trust deed which secured an issue of bonds by the debtor herein. In that proceeding the Trust Company was appointed receiver. On April 6, 1931, the debtor, by appellant, its attorney, filed ■ a petition in that court to remove the receiver and to place the debtor in possession under Smith-Hurd Ill.Stats. c. 22, § 55. On May 6, 1931, an order was entered removing the receiver and directing that the debtor be placed in possession upon the filing of a surety bond in the sum of $15,-000. The bond was filed, with the New Jersey Fidelity and Plate Glass Insurance Company as surety, and it was approved by the court, pursuant to a decree entered on May 6, 1931. That decree provided that the Trust Company should, within two days of the entry of the order, deliver to the debtor, possession and control of the premises involved in the foreclosure proceeding, together with the subject matter of the receivership and of any assets, moneys and all other property and effects pertaining to the premises which were then in the possession and control of the Trust Company, as receiver. It was further ordered that the Trust Company, as receiver, should file its report from the time of its appointment up to and including the time of delivery to the debtor, and that out of the funds thus reported it should retain such fees as should be allowed by the court-for its services and those of its solicitors, Nusbaum, Hugg and Sturman.

It was further ordered in that decree that the debtor should account to the Trust Company, as trustee, for property in its control or thereafter coming into its control, and also for all disbursements and expenses made by it in and about the management of the property involved. In addition, the order provided that the debtor should, until the further order of the court, pay to Hartman Wholesale Corporation, Inc., the sum of $1,000 per month, if a sufficient amount of revenue derived from the premises remained after paying the necessary expenses incident to the conservation, operation and maintenance of the premises. .It was further ordered that the debtor should file a monthly accounting with the Trust Company, as trustee under the mortgage, for all receipts and disbursements, and should deposit all moneys remaining in its possession after payment of the items last referred to, with the Trust Company, which deposits should be retained by the Trust Company, subject to the further order of that court. This decree was approved by the attorneys for the Trust Company and also by appellant as solicitor for the debtor.

Pursuant to that order, the Trust Company turned over to appellant, as attorney for the debtor, three checks totaling $6,-687.88. One check for $6,000 was made payable jointly to the order of the debtor and appellant as its attorney. The other two checks were made payable to the debt- or. All the checks were endorsed by the debtor, by appellant as its duly authorized agent and attorney. Appellant did not deliver the checks to the debtor, but cashed them through his own bank and held the proceeds in his own name. He paid receivership bills aggregating $3,746.77, concerning which there is no controversy here, and retained the balance of $2,941.11 as payment of his attorney’s fee for services claimed to have been performed by him for the debtor corporation.

[190]*190Subsequently, the surety on the debt- or’s bond failed, and on August 24, 1932, the Superior Court of Cook County, at the request of the debtor, entered an order which was prepared by appellant and -Was not objected to by any party to that proceeding. In it the court found and adjudged as follows:

“That said defendant Building Corporation has filed with the Chicago Title & Trust Company the monthly statements of its receipts and disbursements in connection with the management and operation of the mortgaged property, as required by the terms of said order, to and including the statement required to be filed on August 1, 1932, and that said defendant has duly accounted for, disbursed, paid out and deposited all of the net income received from said property to and including August 1, 1932, as required by said order and in other respects has fully performed and complied, with the terms of said order to and including August 1, 1932;

“That the said New Jersey Fidelity and Plate Glass Insurance Company is now in the hands of a Receiver and that said defendant Building Corporation should be required and permitted to file a new bond, conditioned that said order of May 6, 1931 shall be performed and complied with by said defendant from and after August 1, 1932; that a new bond in the penal sum of Fifteen Thousand Dollars * * * conditioned as aforesaid, has been executed by said defendant Building Corporation as principal and the London and Lancashire Indemnity Company of America, a surety corporation duly authorized to execute bonds in this court, and is now offered to be filed in said cause.

“It Is Therefore, Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed that the said bond so executed by said defendant Building Corporation as principal and said London & Lancashire Indemnity Company of America as surety be, and it is hereby approved and filed herein, and that said bond executed as surety by New Jersey Fidelity and Plate Glass Insurance Company shall be, and it is hereby, released and the said Surety Company discharged from all liability thereunder.”

It is contended by appellant that the accounting between him and the trustee under the bond issue was adjudicated by the last order of the state court, and that it is‘the duty of this court to give full faith and credit to that decree. It is not denied that the court must give full faith and credit to all valid decrees of the state courts. The question here, however, involves the content of that decree and the extent of its intended effect. It is clear under this record that appellant in the first instance was not entitled to retain any fee out of the funds in his possession, until it had been passed upon by the court. It is equally clear that the court never passed on appellant’s fee unless it can be considered to have done so by its decree of August 24, 1932, in which it discharged the surety on the bond. In this respect appellant testified:

“Answering categorically as to whether I ever had authority of the court to retain $2941.11, I will answer ‘no,’ but having answered categorically, I qualify my answer and say that I dealt at that time only with the Chicago Title and Trust Company and its officers and employees as trustee.

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Bluebook (online)
86 F.2d 187, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 3689, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haffenberg-v-1030-north-dearborn-bldg-corp-ca7-1936.