Lambert v. Livingston

23 N.E. 352, 131 Ill. 161
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 21, 1890
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 23 N.E. 352 (Lambert v. Livingston) 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
Lambert v. Livingston, 23 N.E. 352, 131 Ill. 161 (Ill. 1890).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Magruder

delivered the opinion of the Court:

This is an appeal from an order or decree of the Circuit Court of Cook County, awarding a writ of assistance in favor of the appellee to put her in possession of certain premises, theretofore sold under a foreclosure decree, and conveyed to her by Master’s deed. The Appellate Court has affirmed the decree of the Circuit Court, and the case is brought here by appeal from the former Court.

On February 25, 1884, Frances Hyers filed her bill in said Circuit Court against Mary L. Lambert, Eudolph Lambert, Adolph Loeb, William Loeb, Francis Lackner, Madison Beal and George C. Christian for the purpose of foreclosing a trust deed, executed by the Lamberts to secure a note for $3500.00 payable to the order of said Frances Hyers. The trust deed was made to Madison Beal, as trustee; and George C. Christian was named therein as successor in trust. The trust deed contained a provision, that, in ease of the death of the trustee, Beal, then Christian “is hereby appointed and made successor in trust herein with like power and authority as is hereby vested in said grantee.” William Loeb and the Lamberts answered the bill; default was entered against Lackner, Christian and Adolph Loeb. In his answer William Loeb sets up, that he was the trustee in a second trust deed executed by the Lamberts to him to secure an indebtedness of $2000.00, which said second trust deed is admitted to be subject to the trust deed to Beal.

On November 28, 1884, the cause was dismissed as to the defendant Madison Beal, trustee, on motion of complainant’s solicitor. On February 24,1885, a decree of sale was entered beginning with the following words:

“This cause having been brought on this day, to be heard upon the bill of complaint taken as confessed by the defendants, Adolph Loeb, Francis Lackner and George C. Christian, (this cause having heretofore been dismissed as to said defondant Madison Beal, because of his death, he being interested in this suit only by virtue of his being trustee in said trust deed,) and upon the joint and several answers of said Mary Louisa Lambert and Rudolph Lambert, filed herein, and the replication of the complainant thereto, also filed herein; and upon the answer of said William Loeb, filed herein, and the replication of complainant thereto, also filed herein; and upon the proof and exhibits offered and heard in open court; and it appearing that all the parties are properly before the court, and that the court has jurisdiction of the subject matter and of the parties thereto, and the court being fully advised in the premises, doth find,” etc.

On June 10, 1885, the property was sold at public auction to one John 0. Ender, who was not a party to the suit, for $5600.00. After paying out of the proceeds of sale all costs and expenses and the principal and interest due Hyers, there remained a surplus of $1472.11, which was paid by the master into the hands of the clerk of the court. Ender assigned the certificate of sale issued to him by the master to Frances Livingston, the appellee herein, who was not a party to the suit. There having been no redemption from the sale, a master’s deed dated September 22, 1886, was executed and delivered to appellee.

The Lamberts being still in possession of the premises, appellee obtained from the Circuit Court an order for a writ of assistance, and the writ was issued and delivered to the Sheriff on September 27, 1886. Thereupon, on October 5, 1886, the Lamberts, appellants herein, obtained a writ of error from the Appellate Court of the first district for the purpose of reviewing the decree of sale entered in the foreclosure suit, which writ of error was made a supersedeas by order of one of the judges of the Appellate Court. On account of the supersedeas the Sheriff refused to execute the writ of assistance.

On June 28,1887, the Appellate Court reversed the decree of sale and remanded the cause to the Circuit Court “for such other and further proceedings as to law and justice shall appertain, and for the purpose of correcting and with directions to correct the error pointed out in the opinion filed herein.” The ground, upon which the Appellate Court reversed the decree, as set forth in Lambert v. Hyers, 22 App. Ct. Rep. 616, was, that the record did not show any service upon Beal, and there were no allegations in the bill, nor proofs in the certificate of evidence, that Beal had died and Christian had accepted the trust as successor. We pass no opinion upon the correctness or incorrectness of this decision.

While the cause was pending in the Appellate Court, the appellee, Frances Livingston, on December 1, 1886, presented her petition to that court praying that the supersedeas be quashed so far as it affected her rights, and on December 8, 1886, the defendant in error therein, Frances Hyers, also made a motion to modify the supersedeas. The petition and motion were taken under advisement and reserved until the hearing, but no formal disposition was ever made of them, so far as we have been able to discover.

Afterwards in the fall of 1887, the cause was redocketed in the Circuit Court, and, by leave granted, Hyers on November 12,1887, filed a supplemental bill, reciting all the former proceedings in the Circuit and Appellate courts, substantially as the same are above set forth, with jhe exception of said petition and motion for the quashing and modification of the supersedeas, and- also alleging that, after the filing of the. original bill and on April 6, 1884, Beal had died, and Christian had assumed and entered upon his duties as successor in trust, as provided in the trust deed.

On January 30, 1888, the Circuit Court rendered a decree, reciting that the cause came on to be heard “upon the testimony heard in open court in support of said supplemental bill and in relation to the matters therein alleged;” and finding that all the allegations of the supplemental bill were true; and decreeing that said original decree should be corrected so as to show the death of Beal after the filing of the original bill, and before decree, and the assumption of the duties of successor in trust by Christian. The Lamberts took an appeal from this decree to the Appellate Court, and on December 7,1888, the Appellate Court reversed the decree of January 30, 1888. In its opinion, that Court assigns as its reasons for such reversal that the decree of January 30, 1888, merely corrected the former decree of February 24, 1885, and was not a decree upon the merits, and that the cause should have been wholly reheard and a hew decree rendered upon the whole case. We do not wish to be understood as deciding whether the action ■of the Appellate Court in reversing the decree of January 30, 1888, was correct or erroneous.

On March 8, 1888, a decree was rendered by the Circuit Oourt of Cook County, reciting that appellee came into court and moved for a writ of assistance to put her in possession of said property and that the appellants appeared at the same time by their solicitor; finding that the appellants were in possession and that due service of the Master’s deed, and of the decree of foreclosure, and of demand for possession, had been made upon them; and ordering that a writ of assistance issue in favor of the appellee and against the appellants in accordance with the decree of foreclosure entered on February 24, 1885, for the property therein described.

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Bluebook (online)
23 N.E. 352, 131 Ill. 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lambert-v-livingston-ill-1890.