Palkey v. Donichy

152 N.E.2d 494, 18 Ill. App. 2d 356
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedSeptember 18, 1958
DocketGen. 47,321
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 152 N.E.2d 494 (Palkey v. Donichy) 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
Palkey v. Donichy, 152 N.E.2d 494, 18 Ill. App. 2d 356 (Ill. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

JUSTICE McCOBMICK

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from an order of the Superior Court of Cook County dismissing plaintiff’s complaint to foreclose a first mortgage upon certain real estate located in Cook County. The order was entered on the motion of three of the defendants, owners of an equitable title to the said real estate. The motion was brought under section 48 of the Civil Practice Act [Ill. Rev. Stats. 1957, ch. 110, § 48].

In order to understand the issues it is necessary to set forth the history of the case preceding the present litigation.

The premises in question, at 3019 Ruby street, Franklin Park, Illinois, were on December 1, 1926 owned by Alfred Frost and Anna Frost, his wife, in joint tenancy. On that date they executed and delivered the note and mortgage trust deed herein sought to be foreclosed, to secure the payment of a $2,000 indebtedness. The trust deed was recorded December 3, 1926 and the mortgage paper was purchased sometime in December, 1926 by J. William Everhart. Alfred Frost died in February, 1928. The mortgage indebtedness fell due on December 1, 1929 and was extended three additional years to December 1, 1932 by an unrecorded extension agreement. Interest on the indebtedness was paid by the Frosts until December 1, 1932. No subsequent payments were made either on the principal or interest. The plaintiff herein, Leah Palkey, together with her husband, was in possession of the premises as tenants. On July 16, 1935 Anna Frost entered the Danish Old People’s Home and executed with the Home a written agreement to convey all her property wherever situated to the said Home in consideration of her keep during the remainder of her life. She died on April 6, 1938. No deed or conveyance of any kind, outside of the said agreement, was made by Anna Frost.

On June 25, 1938 the plaintiff Leah Palkey and her hnshand allegedly purchased the said mortgage indebtedness from J. William Everhart under a written agreement, at which time the Palkeys attorned to Everhart, and held the premises on his hehalf until the written contract was satisfied on December 26, 1940, when Everhart delivered the mortgage paper to the Palkeys and assigned to them all his interest. The taxes and assessments on the said premises were unpaid from 1929 to 1946. In 1952 a tax foreclosure suit was filed, which proceeded regularly to foreclosure decree and order of sale, which occurred on December 30, 1952. Leah Palkey had the property purchased by her nominee Ray Pranzen. On November 30, 1954, one of the defendants herein, John F. Rodgers, had a quitclaim deed to the said premises issued by the Danish Old People’s Home to his nominees, the defendants Charlotte Donichy and Patricia Theriault. On December 20, 1954 Donichy and Theriault redeemed from the said tax foreclosure sale to Franzen. Franzen and Palkey filed their petitions to set aside the said redemption claiming that Palkey owned the premises under an unrecorded, lost deed from Anna Frost, and in the alternative by adverse possession. The Circuit Court set aside the said redemption on November 28, 1956 and dismissed the Palkey petition and directed that the county clerk issue a deed to Franzen. Donichy and Theriault appealed from said order to the Supreme Court (Franzen v. Donichy, 9 Ill.2d 382), and Palkey filed a cross-appeal. The Supreme Court in that case reversed the decree of the Circuit Court but sustained that portion of the decree which dismissed the intervening petition of Palkey. The Circuit Court, on receipt of the mandate, on December 17, 1956 entered a decree in accordance therewith. In that decree the Circuit Court found and decreed that Palkey had failed to show that she ever acquired any interest in or to the real estate “by deed, adverse possession or otherwise.” No appeal was ever taken from that decree.

In 1955 Donichy and Theriault commenced a forcible entry and detainer action against Palkey. After the decree was entered in the Franzen v. Donichy case above referred to, on February 6, 1957 in a summary judgment proceeding the Circuit Court entered judgment for possession in favor of Donichy and Theriault against Palkey.

On February 14, 1957 Palkey filed the instant suit in the Superior Court of Cook County to foreclose the mortgage. The complaint, among other things, asked for a restraining order against Donichy and Theriault. On March 4,1957 the trial court denied the motion for a restraining order. The defendants Donichy, Theriault and Rodgers filed a motion under section 48 of the Practice Act to dismiss the complaint on March 18, 1957, and as grounds set up the statute of limitations and that the cause of action “is barred by prior judgments obtained by defendants against plaintiff in the Circuit Court of Cook County,” setting out the tax foreclosure suit, Franzen v. Donichy, and the forcible detainer suit, Donichy and Theriault v. Palkey. With the motion an affidavit in support was filed. Leave was given to the plaintiff to file a counteraffidavit, which was filed May 20, 1957, and on May 28, 1957 the court entered an order dismissing the foreclosure suit with prejudice, from which order this appeal is taken.

The defendants herein rely on the defense of the statute of limitations. Section 11 of the Limitations Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1957, chap. 83, par. 11) by its terms bars action or sale to foreclose any mortgage or trust deed in the nature of a mortgage after ten years from the time 'when the right of action or right to make such sale accrues. Section lib terminates the lien of a trust deed and mortgage against real estate titles after the expiration of twenty years from the time the last payment became due upon its face unless the mortgagee preserved his lien within a specific period by filing for record an extension agreement. The effect of section lib is that as against persons other than the original parties to the mortgage an unrecorded extension agreement has no validity.

In the case before us the original agreement was due on December 1, 1929 and was extended by an unrecorded extension agreement to December 1, 1932, and interest was paid by the original mortgagors until December 1, 1932. As between the original parties to the mortgage that extension was valid, and section 11 would bar any action being brought after December 1, 1942. Under section lib the extension was not valid insofar as it affected the defendants herein. The mortgage lien, by virtue of section lib, as between the parties to this suit, would expire on December 1, 1949.

It is also the law that the statute of limitations does not run against a mortgagee in possession. Miller v. Frederick’s Brewing Co., 405 Ill. 591. In order to resolve the question as to whether the statute of limitations has run against the plaintiff in this action it is necessary to determine whether or not she was a mortgagee in possession, and the defendants argue that she is estopped from asserting that claim by the finding and judgment in the Circuit Court in the case of Franzen v. Donichy, supra, and by the summary judgment in the Circuit Court in favor of defendants and against plaintiff herein entered on February 6, 1957 in the forcible detainer suit brought for possession.

¥e will first consider the effect of the finding and judgment entered in the forcible detainer action.

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Bluebook (online)
152 N.E.2d 494, 18 Ill. App. 2d 356, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/palkey-v-donichy-illappct-1958.