Kesslar v. Sherman

281 Ill. App. 148, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 524
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 6, 1935
DocketGen. No. 8,881
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 281 Ill. App. 148 (Kesslar v. Sherman) 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
Kesslar v. Sherman, 281 Ill. App. 148, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 524 (Ill. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Dove

delivered the opinion of the court.

On October 3, 1931, Homer H. Sherman and his son, Raymond H. Sherman, were indebted to the First National Bank of Aurora in the sum of $6,610, and as evidence of that indebtedness, they executed and delivered to said bank their collateral note for said sum, payable to the order of the bank. This note matured March 1, 1932, and bore six per cent interest per annum. It recited that the makers had pledged with the said bank as collateral security for the payment thereof a junior trust deed upon 221.59 acres of land in La Salle county. On the same day that Homer H. Sherman and Raymond Sherman executed the $6,610 note, Homer H. Sherman executed his note for $7,000 payable to himself and delivered the same, after indorsing it, to the First National Bank of Aurora. This note was secured by said junior mortgage which Homer H. Sherman also executed on October 3, 1931. This mortgage, conveyed the premises involved herein to the First National Bank of Aurora as trustee. In January, 1932, Homer Sherman died intestate. Thereafter Alvin Sherman was appointed administrator and his estate is being administered in the probate court of Kane county. On June 27, 1932, the bank filed its claim against said estate upon its $6,610 note'and the claim was thereafter duly allowed for the sum of $6,901.93. Thereafter, the First National Bank of Aurora, being insolvent, closed and I. H. Hamilton was appointed receiver thereof. On October 14, 1933, the note of $7,000 and the junior trust deed to secure the payment thereof were purchased by appellee, the plaintiff below, from the receiver for $1,800 and the receiver credited upon the original note of $6,610 the amount received from the sale of said collateral. At the June term, 1932, of the circuit court of La Salle county, the first mortgage upon the premises involved herein was foreclosed, resulting in a sale thereof to Edmund C. Haas. Prior to the institution of this proceeding, appellee redeemed from this sale and the master issued to him a certificate of redemption.

On March 30, 1934, this proceeding was instituted by appellee to foreclose the junior trust deed which he had theretofore purchased from Hamilton, the receiver of the First National Bank of Aurora. His complaint recited most of the foregoing facts and further alleged that the bank had obtained judgment upon the $7,000 note in the circuit court of Will county, that a transcript thereof had been filed in the office of the circuit court of La Salle county, but averred that it was for the same indebtedness represented by the trust deed of the plaintiff and that it is in fact the property of the plaintiff. The complaint made all the heirs of Homer H. Sherman, deceased, his administrator and all parties interested parties defendant to this proceeding. Answers were filed and after the issues were made up, a hearing was had, resulting in a decree finding that there was due appellee the sum of $14,240;.56. This amount being made up of $6,074.46, which the decree found appellee had paid in order to redeem the premises from the prior foreclosure sale, together with the sum of $7,859.71, being the principal sum of $6,610, together with interest thereon, and also the further sum of $306.39, being the amount paid out by appellee for taxes. The decree was in the usual form and directed the payment of said $14,240.56, together with solicitor fees, within five days from the entry of the decree, and in default thereof that the mortgaged premises should be sold. It is from this decree that this appeal has been prosecuted by the administrator and heirs of Homer H. Sherman, deceased, and the receiver of the First National Bank of Aurora. They concede that appellee was entitled to redeem from the sale under the decree foreclosing the first lien upon these premises, and that he is. entitled to recover the amount he paid to redeem, together with the sums he advanced for the payment of taxes and interest. They insist, however, that inasmuch as the receiver retained the principal collateral note of $6,610 and that appellee only purchased the $7,000 note and junior trust deed given to secure the payment of the same, he was only an equitable assignee of the debt represented by the original collateral note to the extent of the amount he paid for said collateral, which was $1,800, and that therefore the decree is erroneous in finding that there was due him $7,859.71, this sum being the amount of the principal collateral note of $6,610 and interest thereon to the date of the decree.

Appellee insists that the receiver in pursuance to the provisions of the collateral note sold the collateral to him and by so doing, the receiver parted with all his right and interest therein and that in this proceeding appellee is entitled to recover not simply the $1,800, being the amount he paid the receiver therefor, but the amount due upon' the principal collateral note of $6,610, he contending that the assignment to him of the collateral note and mortgage operated as an assignment of the amount due the bank under its principal note. In support of their respective contentions, counsel for appellants and appellees cite the case of Peacock v. Phillips, 247 Ill. 467. In that case it appeared that Lillie M. Phillips was the owner of the premises known as 151 Astor street in Chicago and being indebted to the Chicago Savings Bank and Trust Co. in the sum of $2,500, executed a note for that amount and she, with her husband, also executed a note for $4,000 payable to their own order and indorsed the same in blank. They also executed a second mortgage upon said premises to secure the payment of this $4,000 note and delivered this note and mortgage to the bank as collateral security for the payment of their $2,500 note. On April 29, 1907, this note having matured and not being paid, the bank sold the collateral security to J. Arnold Scudder (who knew all the circumstances of the pledge) for $2,530.62, being the amount due the bank. Thereupon the bank canceled the $2,500 note and delivered it to Mrs. Phillips. In a proceeding by the owner of the first trust deed to foreclose the same; he, Scudder, filed his cross-bill, insisting that he was entitled to receive the full amount of his $4,000 note and interest thereon. In refusing to sustain this contention, the court held that the bank might have foreclosed the mortgage pledged to it, but the equities between the parties would have forbidden a decree for any more than the amount due on its $2,500 note, that while the contract between Mrs. Phillips and the bank conferred upon the bank the power of sale and enabled the bank to do an act to obtain payment which could not otherwise have been done, that such a grant of power to sell did not enable the bank to confer a greater right upon the purchaser with full notice of the facts and circumstances and the extent to whióll the bank could enforce the obligation, than the bank would have had in case of foreclosure.

The instant case differs from Peacock v. Phillips, supra, in that there the collateral was sold for the amount due the pledgee and the principal collateral note for $2,500 having been so paid was thereby discharged and was surrendered by the pledgee to the maker while in the instant case the collateral sold for $1,800, which was much less than the amount due the pledgee and the pledgee simply credited the principal note with the amount received from the sale of the collateral and retained the principal note and now insists that in equity he, the holder of the principal note, is entitled to receive all over the amount which his assignee paid him for the collateral.

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281 Ill. App. 148, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 524, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kesslar-v-sherman-illappct-1935.