Niagara Fire Insurance v. Scammon

35 Ill. App. 582, 1890 Ill. App. LEXIS 31
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 21, 1890
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 35 Ill. App. 582 (Niagara Fire Insurance v. Scammon) 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
Niagara Fire Insurance v. Scammon, 35 Ill. App. 582, 1890 Ill. App. LEXIS 31 (Ill. Ct. App. 1890).

Opinion

Gary, P. J.

When this appeal was docketed in this court, Jonathan Young Scammon, of whose estate the appellee is administratrix, was yet alive. More than fifty years earlier, and while the circuit judges whose names appear in this record were yet unborn, he had been appointed reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the State, and four volumes bearing his name are witnesses of the fidelity with which he performed the labor he undertook, and of the ability of the early judges of that court during a period of eleven years.

At the September term, 1889, of the Circuit Court, this case was submitted to the court for trial, without a jury, before Judge Clifford. The plaintiff there, now represented by the appellee, moved for judgment upon a stipulation made, as the .parties, by their briefs, agree, though the record does not show the date, at the April term, 1886, of the Circuit Court, as follows:

“ Circuit Court, Cook County.
J. Young Scammon
v. Gen. Ho.
The Commercial Union Assurance Company. Term Ho. 17.
Same
v. Gen. Ho.
The Adriatic Fire Insurance Company. Term Ho. 18.
Same
v. Gen. Ho.
The Shoe and Leather In- Term Ho. 19. surance Company.
Same ' 1 Gey. No.
Same. J T«tm So. 90.
Same *1
v. Gen. Ho.
The Commercial Union As- Term Ho. 23.
surance Company.
Same
v. , Gen. Ho.
The Adriatic Fire Insurance Term Ho. 24.
Company.
Same
v. Gen. Ho.
The Firemen’s Fund Insur- Term Ho. 22.
anee Company.
Same
v. Gen. Ho.
The Commercial Union As- Term Ho. 25.
surance Company.
Same
v. ! Gen. Ho.
The Shoe and Leather In- Term Ho. 26. surance Company.
Same
v. Gen. Ho.
The Adriatic Fire Insurance Term Ho. 27.
Company.

It is hereby stipulated that the above cases shall be tried by the court without the intervention of a jury, and that the first tried shall be that of J. Young Scammon v. The Commercial Union Assurance Company, Term No. 17, and that either party shall be at liberty to use the evidence contained in the bill of exceptions made up from the former trial of said case, and filed in said Circuit Court, December 22, 1880, and now in the hands of the plaintiff’s attorneys, or from the abstract of the record of said case filed in the Appellate Court of the First District, if for any reason the bill of exceptions is not in the possession "of the party offering such evidence.

It is further stipulated that the succeeding cases shall abide the event of said case both in the Circuit Court and on appeal to the Appellate Court and Supreme Court, if any appeal shall be taken by either party. It is understood that this stipulation shall embrace all the cases in the Circuit Court in which J. Young Scammon appears as plaintiff in his own behalf, or as executor against insurance companies, represented by Miller, Lewis & Judson as defendants. It is understood that either party may offer additional testimony.

(Signed) Charles F. White,
Att’y for plaintiff.
Miller, Lewis & Judson,
Att’ys for defendants.
It is hereby understood and agreed by and between the respective attorneys in the case of Scammon v. The Niagara Fire Insurance Company (No. 21), that it shall abide by the issue in the case of Scammon v. The Commercial Union Assurance Company, above named.
Charles F. White,
Att’y for plaintiff.
Lawrence Proudfoot, ■
Att’y for defendant.

The same motion for judgment upon the stipulation having been made before Judge Grinned, and denied by him at the preceding April term, it was also denied by Judge Clifford, and as the brief for appellant says, though the record does not so show, for the reason that Judge Grinned had denied it.

In the Circuit and Superior Courts of Cook County, each having several judges, when any interlocutory order has been made in a ease by one judge, and further proceedings therein are before another, while courtesy to each should prevent,, as. it does, any captious conflict in rulings, yet each judge has the power to, and if confident he is right, should conduct the proceedings before himself in accordance with his own opinion at the time, whether that conflicts with an earlier interlocutory order or not; and it is immaterial whether that earlier order was made by himself or another judge. Fort Dearborn Lodge v. Klein, 115 Ill. 177. That this stipulation is binding, the appellants do not deny. Indeed, they could not do so successfully. Teal v. Russell, 2 Scam. 319; Johnson v. Estabrook, 84 Ill. 75. But the appellant insists that the proper construction of the stipulation did not entitle the plaintiff below to judgment upon it. The plaintiff there presented to the court, with the stipulation, proof of the further proceedings in the case, No. 17, as they are shown in 20 Ill. App. 500, 125 Ill. 601, and 126 Ill. 355.

The stipulation that the present case should “ abide by the issue ” of that, meant and means that it should abide “ the ultimate result or end ” of No. 17. In no other of the many senses in which the substantive “ issue ” is used could it be appropriate here. Webster’s Dictionary, word “ issue.”

The measure of damages was the only question left open, and if there were errors in the record upon other points, this stipulation would prevent a reversal for such errors. But there were no errors. The action is upon a fire policy for $5,000.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 Ill. App. 582, 1890 Ill. App. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/niagara-fire-insurance-v-scammon-illappct-1890.