Osgood v. Skinner

57 N.E. 1041, 186 Ill. 491
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 57 N.E. 1041 (Osgood v. Skinner) 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
Osgood v. Skinner, 57 N.E. 1041, 186 Ill. 491 (Ill. 1900).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Cartwright

delivered the opinion of the court:

John Skinner and William H. Emerson, the defetidants in error, suing for the use of the said John Skinner, brought their action of assumpsit in the circuit court of Cook county against J. C. Osgood, plaintiff in error, to recover the par value, with interest, of 325 shares of capital stock of the Whitebreast Fuel Company, a corporation of the State of Iowa. The action was upon a contract in writing executed by said parties, which recited that defendant had bought from plaintiffs certain coal mining properties in Fulton county, Illinois, for the agreed consideration of $100,000, which was paid in part by the delivery to the plaintiffs of 650 shares of said capital stock at their par value of $65,000, and in consideration thereof the defendant agreed to purchase from plaintiffs said shares of stock at such par value, provided they should notify him in writing at his office, on or before August 1, 1891, of their election to sell said stock to him. There were special counts setting up the contract, and also the common counts. To the declaration the defendant pleaded the general issue, and to the third count of the declaration a plea of the Statute of Limitations. Issues were formed under these pleas, and the issues so made were submitted to the court for trial without a jury.

On the trial the plaintiffs presented to the court various propositions of law, holding, in substance, that the agreement in question was a valid and binding agreement, but that if it was void as an option contract under section 130 of the Criminal Code and not binding and obligatory on the defendant, then the plaintiffs had a right to tender back the stock and sue for and recover its value, or that portion of the purchase price of the coal mine, railroad and appurtenances. These propositions the court refused to hold. Thereupon the court found the issues for the defendant and rendered judgment against the plaintiffs for costs, to which decision and judgment the plaintiffs excepted and appealed to the Appellate Court for the First District. In the Appellate Court there were assignments of error that the trial court refused to hold the propositions of law so submitted; that the court improperly found the issues for the defendant and rendered judgment in his favor, and that the finding and judgment were contrary to the law and contrary to the evidence. The Appellate Court, upon consideration of the errors assigned, found and recited that there was manifest error in the record and reversed the judgment of the circuit court and remanded the cause to said circuit court, with directions that said circuit court enter a judgment in favor of plaintiffs, against the defendant, for the sum of $32,500, with interest at the rate of five per cent per annum from October 1, 1891, and also enter judgment for costs against the defendant on the 29th day of June, 1899. The Appellate Court did not make or recite in its judgment any finding of facts. Said defendant against whom judgment was ordered, who was appellee in the Appellate Court, sued out the writ of error in this case to review the judgment of the Appellate Court.

The Appellate Court did not enter a final judgment either for damages or costs of the trial court, but remanded the cause to the circuit court, with directions to enter a judgment for plaintiffs for a certain amount of damages and costs. The Appellate Court undertook to judicially determine the matters in controversy between the parties, so as to conclude them on the merits when the case was again re-instated in the circuit court. There was no recital in the judgment of any fact found differently from the facts as found by the trial court, and it must therefore be held that the facts were found the same in both courts, and that the reversal was for errors of law committed by the trial court. , In such a case, if the errors are of a nature to.be corrected upon another trial, it is the duty of the Appellate Court, on a reversal of the judgment, to remand the cause and award a new trial so that the errors may be obviated. (Commercial Ins. Co. v. Scammon, 123 Ill. 601; Scovill v. Miller, 140 id. 504; Siddall v. Jansen, 143 id. 537.) Such a judgment which merely reverses the judgment of the trial court and remands the cause is not a final judgment reviewable by this court.

But it is immaterial in this case whether the judgment of the Appellate "Court is to be regarded as a final judgment or not, so far as the right to a review is concerned. Section 90 of the Practice act provides for a review in this court in two classes of cases. The provision is: “If final judgment or decree be rendered therein, in the Appellate Court, or, if the judgment, order or decree of the Appellate Court be such that no further proceedings can be had in the court below, except to carry into effect the mandate of the Appellate Court, any party to such cause shall be permitted to remove the same to the Supreme Court by appeal or writ of error.” The judgment of the Appellate Court here is such that no further proceedings can be had in the circuit court of Cook county except to carry out the mandate of the Appellate Court, and enter a final judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, against the defendant, for $32,500, with interest from a certain date, and for the costs of the suit.

The Appellate Court had power to reverse the judgment and remand the cause, as was done, but the further order to the circuit court was erroneous. A court of review, in the correction of errors, may give directions in chancery cases to the inferior court to enter such order or decree as oug'ht to have been entered, and may give such directions in enforcement of rulings on questions of law and practice in suits at law, but it cannot deprive a party of his constitutional right to a trial of an issue of fact by jury by ordering the trial court, when the case is re-instated there, to enter a particular judgment. When a cause is re-instated in the trial court the parties have a right to introduce such evidence pertinent to the issue as they may choose, and to submit the issue to a jury. In this case the jury was waived for the purposes of the trial in the circuit court, and it has been held in a number of cases that such waiver also extends to the review of the judgment in the Appellate Court, so as to enable the Appellate Court to decide the issue of fact and enter final judgment. (Commercial Ins. Co. v. Scammon, supra; Commercial Union Assurance Co. v. Scammon, 126 Ill. 355; Manistee Lumber Co. v. Union Nat. Bank, 143 id. 490; Town of Cicero v. Sackley, 164 id. 513; City of Spring Valley v. Spring Valley Coal Co. 173 id. 497.) In Manistee Lumber Co. v. Union Nat. Bank, supra, the court said (p. 504): “Where the trial has been, by agreement, before the court without a jury, resulting in a judgement for the defendant, the Appellate Court may not only reverse, but may also render judgment for the plaintiff, if the law, as applied to the facts found by that court, necessitates such a judgment, and if it can be ascertained from the facts so found what judgment ought to have been rendered by the court below.” In the case of United Workmen v. Zuhlke, 129 Ill. 298, a jury was waived in the trial court and this court assessed the damages and rendered final judgment.

The waiver of a jury for the purposes of a trial, however, is exhausted by that trial and the review of it, and when the case is remanded to the trial court both parties are restored to the original right of trial by jury.

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Bluebook (online)
57 N.E. 1041, 186 Ill. 491, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/osgood-v-skinner-ill-1900.