Illinois Trust & Savings Bank v. La Touche

101 Ill. App. 341, 1902 Ill. App. LEXIS 618
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 20, 1902
StatusPublished

This text of 101 Ill. App. 341 (Illinois Trust & Savings Bank v. La Touche) 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
Illinois Trust & Savings Bank v. La Touche, 101 Ill. App. 341, 1902 Ill. App. LEXIS 618 (Ill. Ct. App. 1902).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Windes

delivered the opinion of the court.

Appellee brought assumpsit against William H. Douglas and William Martin, copartners as Douglas & Co., June 22, 1896, the declaration being the common counts. March 4, 1898, the death of Martin was suggested and the cause ordered to proceed against Douglas as surviving partner. He also died, and his administrator, the appellant, was made a party. After an additional count had been filed, issues were made and trial before the court and a jury resulted in a verdict in favor of appellee and judgment thereon, from which this appeal is taken.

The first ground of reversal relied on is that there was error in the court’s rulings in overruling demurrers to a replication of plaintiff to each of the second and third special pleas to the additional count of the declaration filed December 6, 1900. After the death of both Martin and Douglas, on December 6, 1900, the additional count to the common counts was filed, by which it was charged in substance that said Douglas, deceased, surviving partner of Douglas & Co., was on June 20, 1896, indebted to plaintiff for money had and received, to wit, for money lost to said Douglas and Martin, then comprising the firm of Douglas & Co., by the plaintiff in gambling, to wit, in the pretended buying and selling of grain and stocks, whereby an action had accrued to the plaintiff, according to section 132 of the Criminal Code of Illinois. To this additional count appellant, among other pleas, filed said second plea, which is in substance that the cause of action set up in the additional count did not accrue to the plaintiff at any time within six months before the death of said Douglas; also appellant on December 18, 1901, filed said third special plea, which is the same in substance as said second plea, and in addition alleges that said Douglas died June 25, 1899. It is unnecessary to consider the sufficiency of the replications to these pleas, for if they are bad for any reason, and the pleas were also bad, the demurrers to the replications should have been carried back to the pleas.

The additional count does not state a new cause of action. By the statute a recovery may be had for money lost at gambling under the common counts, as for money had and received. The additional, count, as above shown, only sets out specially a cause of action in that regard, basing it upon the statute. The proof to support it would be the same as under the common counts, and we therefore think it does not state a new and different cause of action from the common counts, which, by virtue of the statute, are sufficient to justify a recovery for money lost at gambling.

The additional count not stating a new cause of action, these pleas are bad, and the appellant’s demurrer to the replications thereto should have been carried back to the pleas.

It is contended that as to the third plea, a demurrer by the plaintiff to that plea having been overruled, the appellant’s demurrer to the replication can not be carried back to his plea, because by replying to the plea the original demurrer thereto was waived. The claim is not tenable. It is not the plaintiff’s demurrer which is being considered, but the appellant’s demurrer to the plaintiff’s replication; and it is carried back, not to the plaintiff’s pleading, but to the appellant’s bad pleas. Stephen’s Pldg. (Heard’s Ed.), 143.

¿Text, it is said there could be no recovery under the common counts for money lost at gambling, without an allegation that the action accrued by the statute. It is unnecessary, if the money sought to be recovered was lost at gambling, to base the recovery on the common counts, because the evidence shows enough and more of plaintiff’s money was lost within the time limited by the statute, than the amount of the judgment. The recovery, under this evidence, could rest on the additional count, the appellant having failed to show a defense under its pleas of the statute of limitations. One good count is sufficient to sustain a judgment when the evidence justifies it. But it is further claimed that the evidence does not. prove that money was lost by the plaintiff to Douglas & Co. at gambling; also that it is insufficient to sustain the verdict on any other ground.

The defendant offered no evidence, and because Douglas and Martin were both dead, the plaintiff could not testify. The only evidence was that of an errand boy, who at the time of the transactions in question was between eleven and twelve years old, and certain checks of plaintiff, payable to the order of Douglas & Co., which were indorsed by them and placed to their credit in the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank.

The boy testified in substance that he ran errands for plaintiff from September 20, 1895, to June, 1896, and took orders from her to Douglas & Co. to buy and sell stocks; that “she did all her business by writing letters, which I would carry. They were not put in sealed envelopes. I read them when I was taking them over there;” that these letters were destroyed; that “When I took an order in from Mrs. LaTouche, they took the order and would go to the ticker, an instrument he had there to quote stocks, and say, ‘You have got it,’ or ‘You have not got it.’ If he accepted the order he would say, ‘You have got it.’ If he did not accept the order he would say, ‘You have not got it.’ Both of the firm took these orders, or refused them. A ticker is an instrument that quoted stocks on a tape—the price of stocks. They would just get hold of the tape and look at it and tell me whether they had the order or did not have the order. That was the method of their doinoO business there doing the whole time I was acting as errand boy.” He also testified to the names of different stocks upon which orders were given; that the checks offered in evidence were “paid for margins for stocks. Margin means money put up;” that between December 23, 1895, and May 29, 1896, aside from the checks, he took to Douglas & Co., he thinks, between $1,000 and $1,500 in cash; also, viz.:

“Q. What, if anything, was said by Douglas & Co. when you came in, if you did come in, about offering to put up further security? A. Sometimes he would say they were froze out. Mr. Douglas would say that. That occurred quite often.

Q. When he said they were froze out, would they accept further money? A. No, sir; would take the money back to Mrs. LaTouche.

Q. Do you know these defendants, what they did? After you gave them an order to buy, what; would you say to them when you gave an order from Mrs. LaTouche to them? (Ho answer.)

Q. What did you say to them and what did they say to you in response? A. I would say, 1 Here is an order to buy stock,’ and would give them the order, and they would take the order and look at it; then they would go to the ticker and see if it was the same price and would say, ‘Have got it;’ sometimes they would say, ‘ Can not have it.’ The money was put up on the orders he said ‘you could have.’ Sometimes they would ask margins and sometimes they would not take any margins any more. When they would not take margins they-would say, ‘It is froze out.’

Q. Before they said ‘it is froze out’ in this transaction, in that condition, did you or did you not give them any orders to close out at all ?’ A. She" did not give me any orders to close out. I did not give Douglas A Co.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Markham v. . Jaudon
41 N.Y. 235 (New York Court of Appeals, 1869)
Bryan v. . Baldwin
52 N.Y. 232 (New York Court of Appeals, 1873)
Corbett v. Underwood
25 Am. Rep. 392 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1876)
Denton v. Jackson
106 Ill. 433 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1883)
Pearce v. Foote
55 Am. Rep. 414 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1885)
Soby v. People
25 N.E. 109 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1890)
Walker v. Johnson
59 Ill. App. 448 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1895)
Board of Trade v. Central Stock & Grain Exchange
98 Ill. App. 212 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1901)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
101 Ill. App. 341, 1902 Ill. App. LEXIS 618, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/illinois-trust-savings-bank-v-la-touche-illappct-1902.