Long v. Cockern

29 Ill. App. 304, 1888 Ill. App. LEXIS 123
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 23, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 29 Ill. App. 304 (Long v. Cockern) 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
Long v. Cockern, 29 Ill. App. 304, 1888 Ill. App. LEXIS 123 (Ill. Ct. App. 1888).

Opinion

Conger, J.

Suit was brought below to foreclose a mortgage on a piece of land and a saw mill. The questions presented by this record grow out of the final decree rendered on the hearing upon bill, answers, replication and proofs taken. The decree awarded foreclosure as to the land, but refused it as to a steam engine and saw mill included in the mortgage, and which wore held to be personalty and not within the lien of the mortgage. From this decree complainant appeals.

The question here at issue is, whether foreclosure should not have been granted as to the saw mill and other property covered by the mortgage as well as to the land itself.

The record shows the following facts : In September, 1885, at Clayton, Illinois, James F. Long bargained to sell to L. B. Cockern a saw mill for $1,200, Cockern agreeing to give him as security a mortgage on a piece of land which he claimed as •his own, and the mill. The mill was then seven miles south of Clayton. Cockern said he would go home and make out the papers, which his wife would have to sign. The land was in fact owned by Mrs. Cockern. It was also subject to a prior mortgage of November 24, 1884, under which, on December 18, 1888, it was sold for $328.95, to which proceedings J. F. Long was not made a party. The land was rough and hilly, chiefly valuable for its timber, and was worth about §500. It was a good place to operate a saw mill. .

L. B. Cockern proposed to his wife, Emily S. Cockern, that if she would join him in a mortgage on the land he would erect a saw mill thereon and attach it thereto and operate it, and out of lumber sawed he would pay off the mortgage and leave her the land and mill free of incumbrance. She accordingly signed the mortgage. The note was made by L. B. Cockern at Carthage, Illinois, October 21, 1885, in the sum of §1,200, payable to James F. Long or order, six months after date, with interest at eight per cent, after maturity. " To secure the same, on said day L. B. Cockern and Emily S. Cockern executed to James F. Long a mortgage on “the south fifty-six acres of the east half of the southwest quarter of section number two (2), township three (3), south of range six (6), west of the fourth principal' meridian,” in Adams county, Illinois. A few days after, L. B. Cockern took the papers down to the saw mill where Long.was. Long, seeing that the saw mill was not mentioned in the mortgage, insisted on its being inserted, and L. B. Cockern thereupon wrote in the mortgage, after the word meridian, the words “together with one portable steam engine and saw mil], boiler wagon and log wagon,” doing this under his bargain with Long and in harmony with his agreement with his wife, though in her absence. The note and mortgage were delivered to Long, and Cockern took possession of the mill.

Under Cocltern’s directions, Long then put the mill on the land mortgaged. The mill was put up on sills. The boiler was sunk in the ground about level with the top. The saw mill was fastened to stakes driven into the ground to keep the track from slipping.1 A shed was put over the mill on posts. Cockern, who had just bought the mill, told Long that it was placed there for permanent use, and that the shed was put there to stay. Cockern claimed the land as his own until the mill was placed on it, when he said it belonged to his wife. Emily S. Cockern, who owned the land, states in her answer that L. B. Cockern placed the saw mill on the land under his agreement with her, and that it became part of the realty, and L. B. Cockern alleges in his answer that the saw mill was attached to and was a part of the real estate mortgaged. The decree finds as a fact that the steam engine and sawr mill were placed upon said real estate by L. B. Cockern shortly after the execution of the note and mortgage for use on the land. Long sawed timber for Cockern there about two months, in 1885 and 1886.

The note matured in April, 1886. Long then demanded payment of L. B. Cockern, but was refused. Hoiking was ever paid on the note. On June 17, 1886, Long, having failed to get a settlement, by his attorneys, Moore & Staker, brought replevin in the Adams county Circuit Court for the saw mill, engine, machinery and tools used therewith, and the boiler wagon and log wagon, and got possession of the same June 19, 1886. Long then took said property to Meredosia, Illinois, where he held it until May, 1887.

The replevin suit came up for trial at the March term, 1887. The pleas were non cejpit, non detinet, property in defendant, no property in plaintiff, and not guilty. After being called and sworn the jury was discharged and the case tried by the court. On the trial, before any judgment was rendered, on May 7, 1887, plaintiff dismissed his suit, whereupon judgment was given against plaintiff for costs, a writ of retorno habendo awarded to defendant, and case continued as to assessing damages. The writ of retorno, issued May 16, 1887, to the sheriff of Morgan county, who, May 17, 1887, seized said property in Long’s possession and turned it over to L. B. Cockern.

On May 9, 1887, two days after the replevin suit was dismissed, L. B. Cockern executed a warrant of attorney giving power to confess judgment on his note of August 26, 1886, for §1,200, to Edward B. Metcalf, of Carthage, Hancock county. On this judgment was entered May 10,1887, for §1,267.50 and costs. On May 17, 1887, the day the property was taken from Long and given to Cockern under the retorno, execution issued on said judgment to the sheriff of Morgan county whoi the next day, May 18th, levied on the property in Cockern’s possession for E. B. Metcalf, by Metcalf’s direction. Loomis? the deputy sheriff, posted notices to sell in ten days, and went down May 2Sth to sell.

Meanwhile, E. R Metcalf agreed to turn his judgment against L. B. Cockern over to his son, John W. Metcalf, defendant in this suit, to make what he could out of it and apply the proceeds on a debt his father owed him. The judgment was accordingly assigned on the record May 31, 1887.

On May 28, 1887, the day of sale under the execution, Long met Loomis, the deputy sheriff, and J. W. Metcalf, walking together at Meredosia. Long then notified Loomis that he bad a $1,200 mortgage on the mill, and told him not to sell it, and that if he did, he would hold the sheriff responsible. Metcalf says he did not hear the claim made by Long and that he knew nothing about the mortgage until he bought the mill of Cockern, but he admitted on his cross-examination that he knew at that time, there had been a replevin suit between Long and L. B. Cockern, and that the property had been put into Cockern’s hands by a writ issued in the replevin suit. Long says Cockern and Metcalf kept away from him. Loomis required an indemnifying bond before selling the mill, and as none was given, continued the sale ten days. Meanwhile, Long held the mill as custodian under the sheriff.

Before the day the sale was postponed to, Cockern went to J. W. Metcalf at work on his farm and said that time and expense would be saved by settling the matter. They went together to Meredosia. On the way there J. W. Metcalf agreed to give Cockern $500 for the mill and apply it on the judgment, and Cockern was to take the mill to Fort Madison, Iowa, and rent it of Metcalf for $60 a month. Loomis, the deputy sheriff, met them at Meredosia on the day to which the sale was continued. J. W. Metcalf and Cockern told Loomis the judgment was satisfied and for him not to sell, but did not tell him what the arrangement was.

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Bluebook (online)
29 Ill. App. 304, 1888 Ill. App. LEXIS 123, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-v-cockern-illappct-1888.