Mann v. Merchants' Loan & Trust Co.

100 Ill. App. 224, 1902 Ill. App. LEXIS 696
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 21, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 100 Ill. App. 224 (Mann v. Merchants' Loan & Trust Co.) 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
Mann v. Merchants' Loan & Trust Co., 100 Ill. App. 224, 1902 Ill. App. LEXIS 696 (Ill. Ct. App. 1902).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Waterman

delivered the opinion of the court.

While the bill and cross-bill are each for the foreclosure of the same mortgage, no question as to the proper assignment of a mortgage or notice to a mortgagor, by a transferee, that he holds the same, arises, as each of the complainants claim rights under the mortgage by virtue of the respective claims to the ownership of the notes secured thereby.

The assignment of a note secured by mortgage carries the security with it. Pardee v. Lindley, 31 Ill. 174; Hamilton v. Lubukec, 57 Ill. 415-419; Keohane v. Smith, 97 Ill. 156; Mullanphy Savings Bank v. Schott, 135 Ill. 655; Curtis v. Humble, 57 Ill. App. 513; Humble v. Curtis, 160 Ill. 193.

Negotiable instruments under the law merchant and in Illinois by force of the statute have an assignability by virtue of which latent defenses of the maker or former holders may be cut off. The statute of this State, sections 3, 4, 7, and a portion of 10, chapter 98, is as follows:

Effect of notes, etc. § 3. All promissory notes, bonds, due bills and other instruments in writing, made or to be made, by any person, body politic or corporate, whereby such person promises or agrees to pay any sum of money or articles of personal property, or any sum of money in personal property, or acknowledges any sum of money or article in personal property to be due to any other person, shall be taken to be due and payable, and the sum of money or article of personal property therein mentioned shall, by virtue thereof, be due and payable as therein expressed.

Notes, etc., assignable by indorsement. § 4. Any such note, bond, bill or other instrument in writing, made payable to any person named as payep therein, shall be assignable, by indorsement thereon, under the hand of such person, and of his assignees, in the same manner as bills of exchange are, so as absolutely to transfer and vest the property thereof in each and every assignee successively.

Eights of holders—liability of assignor. § 7. The rights of lawful holders of promissory notes payable in money and the liability of all parties to or upon said notes shall be the same as that of like parties to inland bills of exchange according to the custom of merchants.

Fraud. § 10. If any fraud or circumvention be used in obtaining the making or executing of any of the instruments aforesaid, such fraud or circumvention may be pleaded in bar to any action to be brought on any such instrument so obtained, whether such action be brought by the party committing such fraud or circumvention, or any assignee of such instrument.

In this State, notes indorsed in blank pass by mere delivery. Morris, Adm’x, v. Preston et a,l., 93 Ill. 215-221; Palmer v. Marshall, 60 Ill. 289-292; Wilder v. DeWolf, 24 Ill. 190.

It has long been the settled law in Illinois that the bona fide assignee of notes secured by trust deed thereby acquires the security, subject, only, to equities of the mortgagor and not subject to latent equities of other parties of which he has no notice. Olds v. Cummings, 31 Ill. 188-194; Shreeves v. Allen, 79 Ill. 553-555; Silverman v. Bullock, 98 Ill. 11; Mullanphy Savings Bank v. Schott, 135 Ill. 655; Himod v. Gilman, 147 Ill. 293-301; Humble v. Curtis, 160 Ill. 193. See also Murry v. Lyburn, 2 John. Ch. 441.

Our attention is called to the following excerpt from the 2d Edition of the Am. & Eng. Enc. of Law, Vol. 4, p. 321:

“ When it has been shown that a negotiable instrument was stolen from or lost by the true owner, tainted in its inception with illegality or fraud, obtained from the maker by fraud or duress, or put into circulation fraudulently, the presumptions in favor of the holder’s title are overcome and it devolves upon him to show that he is a bona fide holder for value; that is, he must show that he or some prior holder, took the paper in good faith, for value, without notice, before maturity, and in the usual course of business.”

The principle thus enunciated, it is insisted, is decisive of this case. The statement, evidently, covers only things done prior to or connected with the origin of the negotiable instrument, such as the creation of it and the first putting into circulation; the author indicates that the last holder may rely upon the fact that some “ prior holder took the paper in good faith, for value, without notice, before maturity, and in the usual course of business.” In the present case appellee claims that Mann, a prior holder, took the paper under all these conditions, and appellant, Mann, also so insists.

Carefully read, and not extended by implication, the excerpt is in accordance with the law of Illinois. Hodson v. Eugene Glass Go., 156 Ill. 397, the only Illinois case cited in support thereof, is not in point. The court in that case found that the note was obtained from the maker by fraud; the Circuit Court not only found this, but that the holder was not a bona fide holder for value. 156 Ill. 400; 58 Ill. App. 248-249. Moreover, the bill in that case was filed by the nominal maker of the note and mortgage to enjoin the foreclosure of the mortgage and the collection or assignment of the note.

Appellant also calls our attention to Charles v. Remick, 156 Ill. 327, and to Wright v. Brosseau, 73 Ill. 381. The case of Charles v. Remick was a suit upon a note made by one Goldthwaite, he, after he had ceased to be a member of the firm of “ Ward, G-oldthwaite & Co.,” signing such firm name and thereby apparently creating its note, Remide, a partner in such firm, being sued, successfully defended by showing the fraudulent issue of the note. 156 Ill. 329; 54 Ill. App. 117.

Wright v. Brosseau arose out of a note wrongfully made by a partner in fraud of the firm. Such fact being shown, the burden, it is said, was thrown upon the indorsee (plaintiff) of showing that “he received the note in the usual course of business and for value ” and “ that he was a bona fide indorsee for value without notice of the fraud.”

In the present case it is undisputed that Schintz in the first instance obtained the note bona fide for value; that he sold it to Mann in the same way. The maker of the note does not dispute the validity of either note or mortgage. The contest here is between a party, once a bona fide holder for value, who voluntarily gave possession of note and mortgage to Schintz for value before maturity, and a party who, bona fide for value, before maturity, received the note and mortgage from Schintz and still holds the same.

The question is not at all as to the assignability of a mortgage. The ownership of the note carries with it the security; it will hardly be contended that appellant is entitled to foreclose the mortgage and receive the benefit thereof while appellee may recover judgment on the note.

It has repeatedly been held that under the statute of this State it is a fraud used in obtaining the making or executing of a promissory note, that will constitute a defense thereto against a bona fide holder for value; the fraud must have been such that the party was deceived as to the effect of his act. Wood v. Hynes, 1 Scam. 103; Mulford v. Shepard, 1 Scam. 583; Adams v. Wooldridge, 3 Scam. 255-257; Easter v. Minard, 26 Ill. 495-496; Latham v. Smith, 45 Ill. 25-27; Shipley v. Carroll, 45 Ill.

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100 Ill. App. 224, 1902 Ill. App. LEXIS 696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mann-v-merchants-loan-trust-co-illappct-1902.