Middleton v. Commercial Investment Corp.

22 N.E.2d 723, 301 Ill. App. 242, 1939 Ill. App. LEXIS 614
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 20, 1939
DocketGen. No. 9,353
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 22 N.E.2d 723 (Middleton v. Commercial Investment Corp.) 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
Middleton v. Commercial Investment Corp., 22 N.E.2d 723, 301 Ill. App. 242, 1939 Ill. App. LEXIS 614 (Ill. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Wolfe

delivered the opinion of the court.

William T. Middleton started suit to recover damages against the Commercial Investment Corporation for the value of three automobiles, which he claimed had been converted to its own use by the Commercial Investment Corporation. The plaintiff alleges that the defendant took three automobiles belonging to the plaintiff from the Wendel Motor Sales, and converted them to its own use. The plaintiff filed a bill of particulars in which he claims that Grlenn Wendel, doing-business as Wendel Motor Sales, was the third party who had possession of the cars; that on November 21, 1936, Wendel delivered to the plaintiff, a bill of sale and certificates of title for the three cars in question. The plaintiff alleged that he suffered loss in the sum of $835, but later amended his complaint and charged his loss to be $1,470'. The defendant filed its answer, in which it denied that the plaintiff owned the cars in question and denied any conversion of the same. The answer admits that it took the three cars in question from the Wendel garage. The defendant denied that the plaintiff was entitled to the relief prayed for. The defendant affirmatively stated that it was the owner of the three automobiles in question by virtue of a motor vehicle bill of sale, and trust receipt dated October 16, 1936, and another on October 16, 1936, and the other November 18, 1936, respectively. The defendant admitted that the plaintiff made a demand on it to deliver to him the three automobiles and that said demand was refused.

The case was tried before the court without a jury, which found the issues for the plaintiff and assessed the damages at $848.31. Judgment was entered upon this finding and the cost was assessed against the defendant and from this judgment the appellant has prosecuted this appeal.

The evidence shows that Glenn Wendel was doing business as the Wendel Motor Sales and had been in business buying and selling new and secondhand automobiles in the city of Sterling for about four years, and maintained a place of business in Sterling, Illinois; that in the fall of 1936, he took in trade three automobiles namely: a Studebaker President Sedan, a Studebaker Commander Sedan, and an Oldsmobile six-cylinder coupé; that in the fall of 1936, Wendel received certificates of title issued by the secretary of State to the three cars in question; that the cars were kept in Wendel’s salesroom at his place of business in Sterling, Illinois.

The record further shows that on October 28, 1936, Wendel executed the bill of sale and trust receipt for one of the cars and on October 16, a bill of sale and trust receipt for a second car. On November 18,1936, he executed a like bill of sale and trust receipt for the third car, and that these bills of sale and trust receipts were issued to the Commercial Investment Corporation, and at the same time the Motor Sales by Wendel, issued its negotiable promissory note to the Commercial Investment Corporation. The cars continued to remain in Wendel’s storeroom in Sterling*. The certificates of title were not delivered to the Commercial Corporation.

On November 21, 1936, while the cars were in the Wendel’s Motor Sales possession, Wendel executed three bills of sale to the cars, conveying them to the plaintiff, Middleton, and at the same time delivered the three certificates of title to Middleton assigned in blank. Just prior to this, Middleton had signed a note at the Central National Bank of Sterling, as security for Wendel’s note for $835. The cars still remained in the possession of Wendel. On February 8, 1937, the Commercial Investment Corporation took possession of the three cars and removed them from Wendel’s garage. This suit was started in September 3,1937.

There is very little dispute in regard to the facts in the case, with the exception of the value of the cars in question. That the Commercial Investment Corporation loaned money on each of these cars, and took a bill of sale and trust receipt for the same, is uncontradicted. It is not disputed that Middleton signed the note for $835 with Wendel at the bank, and took a bill of sale for the same three cars, or that at the time Middleton took the bill of sale, he had no knowledge that Wendel had given a bill of sale and trust receipt to the defendant investment corporation. The defendant set forth in its answer, and now claims that they are entitled to the possession of these cars, because they had a trust receipt properly signed by the Wendel Motor Sales, and that they had filed with the secretary of State the trust receipt and notice, and paid a proper fee for the same, therefore under the law, they were entitled to the possession of the cars at the time they took them from Wendel.

The part of the statutory provision relative to trust receipts is found under the title sales in Smith-Hurd’s Annotated Statute, ch. 121½ [Ill. Rev. Stat. 1937, ch. 121½, § 167; Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 135.17 (2)] and provides: “(e) the entruster gives new value in reliance upon the transfer by the trustee to such entruster of a security interest in goods or documents in possession of the trustee and the possession of which is retained by the trustee; provided that the delivery under paragraph (a) or the giving of new value under paragraphs (b) or (c) either (I) Be against the signing and delivery by the trustee of a writing designating the goods, documents or instruments concerned, and reciting that a security interest therein remains or will remain, or has passed to or will pass to, the entruster, or (II) . . . The security interest of the entruster may be derived from the trustee or from any other person, and by pledge or by transfer of title or otherwise. . . . (2) A writing- such as is described in subsection one, paragraph (I), of this section signed by the trustee, and given in or pursuant to such a transaction, is designated in this Act as a ‘trust receipt.’ No further formality of execution or authentication shall be necessary to the validity of a trust receipt. (3) A transaction shall not be deemed a trust receipt transaction unless the possession of the trustee thereunder is for a purpose substantially equivalent to any one of the following: (a) In the case of goods, documents or instruments, for the purpose of selling or exchanging them, or of procuring* their sale or exchange. . . . ”

The appellees contend that the Sales Act, that part of which provides for this trust agreement, is, “Void and Unconstitutional because it is conflicting in its provisions, unintelligible and the title does not express the full scope of the act.” This court cannot pass on the constitutionality of a legislative act. If that question were properly broug’ht before this court, the case would have to be transferred to the Supreme Court. It is a well settled rule of law that any assignment of error which is not argued, is waived by the party who raised it. A mere statement that an act is unconstitutional because it is conflicting in its provisions, it is unintelligible, and the title does not state the full scope of the act, is not an argument of the question.

The appellee contends that even though the statute is a valid one, the defendants have not shown that they have complied with the statute so as to receive the benefit of it. Defendant’s Exhibit H is as follows: “Statement of Trust Receipt Financing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
22 N.E.2d 723, 301 Ill. App. 242, 1939 Ill. App. LEXIS 614, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/middleton-v-commercial-investment-corp-illappct-1939.