International Packing Co. v. Cichowicz

114 Ill. App. 121, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 390
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 12, 1904
DocketGen. No. 11,285
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 114 Ill. App. 121 (International Packing Co. v. Cichowicz) 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
International Packing Co. v. Cichowicz, 114 Ill. App. 121, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 390 (Ill. Ct. App. 1904).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Windes

delivered the opinion of the court.

In an action on the case appellee Cichowicz recovered judgment by default in the Superior Court of Cook county, Illinois, against appellant, for $5,000, July 10, 1900, and on the 14th of that month said court gave appellant leave to plead instanter, the judgment “to stand as security,” on condition of appellant paying $100 to Cichowicz’s attorney and to Cichowicz $250, said “ sums paid to be deducted from any recovery, if one is had.” These latter two sums were paid by appellant and it pleaded. On a jury trial Cichowicz recovered a verdict for $3,000, on which the court rendered judgment as of February 1,1902, which, omitting the formal parts, is, viz: '

“ Therefore it is considered by the court that the judgment entered herein of record on the tenth day of J uly, A. D. 1900, for the sum of five thousand dollars, stand in as full force and effect as at the time of the rendition thereof; and the plaintiff herein remitting the sum of three hundred and fifty dollars from the damages of three thousand dollars assessed by the jury aforesaid, it is further ordered that upon the payment of the sum of twenty-six hundred and fifty dollars, with interest thereon and costs of suit, the judgment entered on the tenth day of July, A. D. 1900, for five thousand dollars, be satisfied in full of record and that , execution thereon be endorsed accordingly.”

On a writ of error to this court this judgment was reversed without remanding the cause, but before the writ of error was sued out Ciehowicz caused an execution to be issued March 20, 1902, which was placed in the sheriff’s hands May 16, 1902, and after demand on appellant to pay the same or turn out property, was, on June 17,1902, levied by the sheriff on lots 1 and 2 in Putnam and Bishop’s subdivision (fully described in the record and all subsequent proceedings under the execution). The sheriff proceeded regularly in due form of law and according to the statute in such case made and provided, and sold said real estate at public sale to the appellee Wenham for $2,990, the same being in full of said judgment execution and costs, and issued to him the usual sheriff’s certificate of sale on July 15,1902. The amount of said bid, less costs, was paid over to the appellee Tone, the attorney of said Ciehowicz, and the execution was returned by the sheriff satisfied in full.

After the rendition of the original judgment July 10, 1900, and prior to said July 15,1902, no execution was issued thereon, nor were any proceedings had thereunder, nor was any appeal or writ of error prosecuted therefrom, nor was any injunction issued or order of court made with reference thereto, except as above stated.

Prior to July 10,1900, appellant was the owner in fee of said real estate, and had on June 26, 1900, agreed to sell and convey it to one Isidora Schmitt, and afterwards on July 23, 1900, did by warranty deed duly delivered and recorded • in the recorder’s office of Cook county that day, convey the same to her for the expressed consideration of $75,000, though the real consideration was $120,000 in bonds which were worth at least $60,000. The sale and conveyance of said lots by appellant to Schmitt was a Iona fide transaction, and neither she nor any one representing her had any actual notice of said judgment or any proceedings there. under. Before the time for redemption from said sheriff’s sale, and on May 4, 1903, appellant, on due notice to all said appellees, moved said Superior Court to set aside said execution, the levy and sale thereunder, and the sheriff’s certificate of sale, and in support of such motion offered evidence showing, among other things of minor importance not necessary .to be here stated, the above facts. The motion was denied and this appeal taken, but "in the same order the court restrained the sheriff, pending the appeal, from issuing any deed on the certificate or paying out any redemption money thereon which might come to his hands, and said Wenham from taking out any sheriff’s deed based on said sale.

The first question presented is the contention by appellees, also made in the Superior Court, that the latter court had no jurisdiction under appellant’s motion to dispose of the rights of Wenham, who is claimed to be an innocent bona fide purchaser" at a judicial sale, and that appellant’s remedy, if any, was by bill in equity. The cases cited in support of the contention are different from the case at bar, in that they involve a trial of the title which the purchaser had acquired by a deed issued to him based on a judicial sale.

A court of law may exercise equitable jurisdiction over-its process, and before a deed has issued set aside an execution sale and the certificate of sale made by the officer of the court, upon motion made before the time for redemption expires and upon notice to the purchaser and parties to the action. Mason v. Thomas, 24 Ill. 286; Roberts v. Clelland, 82 Ill. 538-41; Swiggart v. Harber, 4 Scam. 364-74; Rigg v. Cook, 4 Gil. 336-48; Oakes v. Williams, 107 Ill. 154; Hay v. Baugh, 77 Ill. 500-3; Jenkins v. Merriweather, 109 Ill. 647-50; Shirk v. Gravel Road Co., 110 Ill. 661-5.

As early as the case of Swiggart v. Harber, supra, the Supreme Court held that the court issuing an execution had power to control it and the proceedings under it so long as they were in fieri, and that if a "wrong was done under process of the court, under such circumstances the court' issuing the process “ alone possessed the power to correct the evil.”

In the Jenkins case, supra, the court in considering a question of irregularity in proceedings under an execution by a sheriff, after a deed had been issued, and whether it was necessary to resort to equity in that case, in substance states the effect of. the previous decisions of the Supreme Court as to the powers of a court of law and of equity in such cases, before as well as after the sheriff’s deed had issued, as follows: “ Courts of record exercise the power to control their process as long as the proceeding is in fieri. This was the common law practice, which has always prevailed in the courts of this state. Under that practice the court may, on proper grounds,withdraw and quash executions and other writs, and no doubt set aside sales of real estate before they have ripened into titles; but it has never been the practice, on motion, in this jurisdiction, to set aside deeds or divest title when the sale has ripened into a deed and the title has vested, and all antecedent writs and process have performed their functions and have become functus officio.”

We are of opinion that, the Superior Court, on the law side only, had jurisdiction to correct the wrong, if any, done to appellant under the motion made by it.

The claim that Wenham is a bona fide purchaser is not tenable. He cannot be such in law, although he purchased in entire good faith without any actual knowledge of the purchase by Schmitt or the fact that no execution issued on the original judgment within one year from its rendition, and paid his money in the belief that he would get a perfectly good title to the property in case it was not redeemed. He is chargeable with notice of the facts disclosed by the record of the proceedings in the case which resulted in the judgment and under which he derived his interest, if any.

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Bluebook (online)
114 Ill. App. 121, 1904 Ill. App. LEXIS 390, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/international-packing-co-v-cichowicz-illappct-1904.