Laing v. Fish

119 Ill. App. 645, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 162
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 13, 1905
DocketGen. No. 11,798
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 119 Ill. App. 645 (Laing v. Fish) 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
Laing v. Fish, 119 Ill. App. 645, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 162 (Ill. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Brown

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a decree of the Circuit Court of Cook County, dismissing, for want of equity, appellant’s bill for an accounting.

Two pleas, one of res judicata, and the other that the-complainant had no title to the interest or indebtedness concerning which he demanded by his bill an accounting,, had been filed to said bill. The chancellor allowed said pleas and each of them. The complainant elected not to reply to them, and the bill was thereupon dismissed at his-costs.

The only question before us is whether or not these pleas are good. If either of them is good and was properly allowed, the bill was rightly dismissed.

The bill in .this cause sets up an agreement between the complainant and Fish, one of the defendants, by which agreement complainant was to manage a department of Fish’s business, known as the cheese department, and receive therefor $1,300 a year, and as additional compensation 50 per cent of the net proceeds of the said department after deducting, first, $2,500 for rental of space used by the department, and, secondly, the general expenses of the department. It alleges that said department commenced business November 1, 1893; that Mandelbaum, the second defendant, joined Fish as a co-partner, and ratified the agreement with complainant November 14, 1897; that said department was conducted under said agreement until May 1, 1900, when the agreement expired and was not renewed; that the business remains unsettled between the said defendants and the complainant, and defendants refuse to adjust it; that complainant on his own petition, filed May 31, 1899, was adjudged a bankrupt on June 7, 1899; that on July 6, 1899, E. B. McKey was elected trustee of any property in which complainant on May 31, 1899, had any right, title or interest; that on February 13, 1900, complainant was discharged from payment of his liabilities scheduled by him in the bankruptcy proceedings, among which was a liability scheduled as $1,950, alleged to be due said defendants; that on November 10, 1900, the trustee in the bankrupt estate filed his final report, that-he had neither received nor paid any moneys on account of said estate, and asked to be discharged of his trust; that on November 10, 1900, an order was entered discharging said trustee; that by virtue of this, and under the Bankruptcy Act, complainant became revested in and with any interest which he may have had on May 31, 1899, in any assets, effects or property; that on May 23, 1900, complainant filed a bill for accounting in the Circuit Court against the defendants, alleging a large sum of money due complainant thereunder; that on July 7, 1900, defendants filed a plea to said bill, setting up that by virtue of the-, filing of the petition in bankruptcy aforesaid, the alleged rights of complainant in and to an. account and settlement of any indebtedness due said complainant from said defendants on June 7, 1899, became vested in said trustee-in bankruptcy; that said trustee had entered into the performance of his duties at the time of his appointment and had, up to the time of filing said bill, acted as such trustee; that on December 18, 1901, said plea was sustained, and that upon a true settlement of the accounts of said department from November 1, 1893, to June 7, 1899, it' will appear that there is a large balance due complainant from said defendants.

The prayer of the hill is for an account from November 1, 1893, to June 7, 1899, and for a decree that the defendants pay complainant anything appearing to be due him on such accounting. The first plea filed to this bill sets up the former bill of complainant filed on May 23, 1900, praying for an accounting for the entire period from November 1, 1893, to May 23, 1900, and the proceedings thereunder, including the plea of the defendants to said bill on July 7, 1900, the argument of said plea on December 17, 1900, and a decree on that date adjudging the plea good and sufficient in law, allowing the same, and finding that the trustee in bankruptcy became vested as of June' 7, 1899, with the title of said Laing to every claim said Laing had on said June 7, 1899, against said defendants, including any right to an accounting with them, and to any balance due him from them on said June 7, 1899, and ordering that said hill as to such parts as prayed for relief or discovery from said defendants in respect to any such rights accruing from them prior to June 7, 1899, be dismissed. The said first plea further sets up that said order and decree so entered on December 17, 1901, still stands in full force .and effect, not vacated, reversed, or otherwise annulled, and that the said residue of said last mentioned bill of complaint not dismissed by said last mentioned order and decree is still pending and undetermined. The first plea, therefore, is one. of res judicata.

The second plea filed to this bill sets up the bankruptcy proceedings as hereinbefore recited; that the trustee in said proceedings became vested with the title of said bankrupt to all his estate as of June 7, 1899, including any supposed claim said bankrupt had against these defendants and any supposed right for an account with these defendants, and in and to any supposed balance due him from them; that on May 31, 1899, said Laing filed with his petition in the bankrupt court his schedule of assets and liabilities, listing as such assets only certain household goods, animals, books and wagon, of the value of one hundred and sixty dollars, claiming said property as exempt; that said bankrupt therein listed liabilities amounting to $30,471.05, and by an amendment to said schedules filed December 6, 1899, listed an additional liability of $1,923.14, due defendants and as contracted in 1896, 1897 and 1899; that in said schedule of assets said Laing listed no claim against said defendants, and never informed said trustee of any claim against said defendants; and that no notice was ever given said trustee of any claim of said Laing against said defendants; that a claim was allowed in said bankruptcy estate in favor of Lepman & Heggie, the order of allowance of which is still in full force; and that no dividend has been paid thereon, nor any payment made thereon.

As we have before said, if either of these pleas is good, the judgment of the Circuit Court must be afiirmed. We think that both are good.

The first one raises the question whether the order in the previous suit entered on December 17, 1901, and recited in said plea, made rem judicatam the contention raised by the present bill. We think it did. Appellant seeks to avoid its force by saying that the bill as to which the order was made was filed on May 23, 1901, before the trustee in the bankruptcy proceedings was discharged, and that therefore the disposal of it adjudicated only as of that date, May 23, 1901, the question of the title to the debt alleged to be due appellant. But this is a view that we think cannot be sustained.

When the cause was tried and the order entered on December 17, 1901,- the appellant must have been vested with the same title to the accounting that he now possesses. If he has any such right now, he had it then, for the trustee in bankruptcy was discharged on November 10, 1900, thirteen months before, and no proceedings had been had in the bankruptcy 'cause in the interval.

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Bluebook (online)
119 Ill. App. 645, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/laing-v-fish-illappct-1905.