Hannah v. People ex rel. Attorney General

64 N.E. 776, 198 Ill. 77
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 19, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 64 N.E. 776 (Hannah v. People ex rel. Attorney General) 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
Hannah v. People ex rel. Attorney General, 64 N.E. 776, 198 Ill. 77 (Ill. 1902).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Boggs

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal by John S. Hannah from a judgment of the circuit court of Cook county adjudging him guilty of contempt and imposing a fine of $100 for violating a decree of that court enjoining him and other interested parties from storing in the public warehouse of the Central Elevator Company any grain directly or indirectly owned by or belonging to said elevator company or the firm of Carrington, Hannah & Co., (of which appellant was a member,) or in which said corporation or firm had any interest other than as public warehousemen. Upon information in chancery theretofore filed in said circuit court by the Attorney General against said Central Elevator Company and eight other companies, they, and each of them, their managers, agents and employees, had by the decree of said court been enjoined from storing and mixing their own grain with the grain of their customers in their own elevators. Appeals were taken from the decrees in those cases to this court, where they were affirmed. (Central Elevator Co. v. People, 174 Illl. 203.) While these appeals were under consideration in this court the legislature passed an att approved May 26,1897, (Laws of 1897, p. 302,) amending section 6 of the Warehouse act of April 25, 1871, purporting to make it lawful for owners, lessees or managers of public warehouses of class “A” to store their own grain and mix it with the grain of others of the same grade in their own warehouses, on condition hereinafter set forth. After this act was adopted and after the decree was affirmed by this court, the appellant, as manager of the Central -Elevator Company, and who was one of the owners of stock in said company, with full knowledge of said decree and its affirmance and of the perpetual injunction thereby granted, stored and continued to store the grain of the elevator company, and of the co-partnership of which he was a member, in the warehouse of said company, claiming the right to do so under said amendatory act of 1897, but disclaiming any intent to violate the injunction of the court. In the proceedings instituted against Hannah as for contempt the circuit court held that the act of 1897 was unconstitutional and void, and entered the judgment and imposed the fine appealed from.

Since this case was taken under advisement by this' court, the appellant, John S. Hannah, died, and his death having been suggested to the court, a motion was made by the Northern Trust Company that it be substituted, as his executor, as appellant. It has also been suggested that the appeal abated upon the death,of said John S. Hannah, and if so, that the executor could not, of course, be substituted as a party in his stead. We are of the opinion that this cause has not abated. It is ancillary to the one in which the injunction was granted and partakes of its character. It is a civil remedy of the parties to enforce the decree, and is not criminal in its nature. (People v. Diedrich, 141 Ill. 665; People v. Weigley, 155 id. 491; Lester v. People, 150 id. 408.) The motion to substitute the executor, the Northern Trust Company, as appellant herein, is allowed.

Upon the merits the only question involved in the case is the constitutionality of said amendatory act of 1897. Careful consideration of this question has brought us to the conclusion that the provisions of the amendatory act are inconsistent ypjth the spirit and purpose of the provisions of the constitution of 1870 with relation to public warehouses, and that the said act of 1897 must be declared inoperative for the reason it is in contravention of such constitutional provisions.

That the framers of the constitution deemed the matter of the protection of producers and shippers of grain against wrong, frauds and impositions on the part of those engaged in the business of providing storage for grain of great importance, is demonstrated by the fact they devoted an entire article of the constitution to that subject. (Const. 1870, art. 13.) Sections 1, 2, 6 and 7 of said article 13 of the constitution are as follows:

“Sec. 1. All elevators or storehouses where grain or other property is stored for a compensation, whether the property stored be kept separate or not, are declared to be public warehouses. '

“Sec. 2. The owner, lessee or manager of each and every public warehouse situated in any town or city of not less than 100,000 inhabitants, shall make weekly statements under oath, before some officer to be designated by law, and keep the same posted in some conspicuous place in the office of such warehouse, and shall also file a copy for public examination in such place as shall be designated by law, which statement shall correctly set forth the amount and grade of each and every kind of grain in such warehouse, together with such other property as may be stored therein, and what warehouse receipts have been issued, and are, at the time of making such statement, outstanding therefor; and shall, on the copy posted in the warehouse, note daily such changes as may be made in the quantity and grade of grain in such warehouse; and the different grades of grain shipped in separate lots shall not be mixed with inferior or superior grades without the consent of the owner or consignee thereof.

“Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass all necessary laws to prevent the issue of false and fraudulent warehouse receipts, and to give full effect to this article of the constitution, which shall be liberally construed so as to protect producers and shippers. And the enumeration of the remedies herein named shall not be construed to deny to the General Assembly the power to prescribe by law such other and further remedies as may be found expedient, or to deprive any person of existing common law remedies.

“Sec. 7. The General Assembly shall pass laws for the inspection of grain, for the protection of producers, shippers and receivers of grain and produce.”

In obedience to the mandates of the constitution, the General Assembly, at the session of 1871, adopted an act entitled “An act to regulate public warehouses and the warehousing and inspection of grain, and to give effect to article 13 of the constitution of this State,” approved April 25, 1871. (3 Starr & Cur. Stat. p. 3316.) This enactment divided the public warehouses, as defined in article 13 of the constitution, wherein grain might or should. be stored, into two classes, designated, respectively, as class “A” and class “B.” Class “A” includes only such warehouses, elevators or granaries as are located in cities having not less than 100,000 inhabitants, and the act otherwise defined warehouses of this class as follows: “Public warehouses of class ‘A’ shall embrace all warehouses, elevators or granaries in which grain is stored in bulk, and in which the grain of different owners is mixed together, or in which grain is stored in such a manner that the identity of different lots or parcels can not be accurately preserved.” The public warehouse of the Central Elevator Company is located in the city of Chicago, and is included in class “A.” Section 3 of the act of 1871 provided that the owner, lessee or manager of any warehouse of class “A” should be required to procure from the circuit court of the county in which the warehouse is situated, a license authorizing such owner, lessee or manager to transact business as a public warehouseman. Section 6 of the act of 1871 is as follows, except the words italicized and placed in brackets:

“Sec.

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Bluebook (online)
64 N.E. 776, 198 Ill. 77, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hannah-v-people-ex-rel-attorney-general-ill-1902.