Prindiville v. Curran

132 Ill. App. 162, 1907 Ill. App. LEXIS 112
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 4, 1907
DocketGen. No. 13,145
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 132 Ill. App. 162 (Prindiville v. Curran) 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
Prindiville v. Curran, 132 Ill. App. 162, 1907 Ill. App. LEXIS 112 (Ill. Ct. App. 1907).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Adams

delivered the opinion of the court.

The only brief or argument filed on this appeal for an appellee is that for Isabella Curran. The counsel for Isabella Curran state in their argument that they appear for her alone. If the bill as amended May 24, 1906, is a bill entitling the complainants, on sufficient proof, to relief as to the defendant Richard Curran it should not have been dismissed, even though it may not disclose any case for equitable interposition as against Isabella Curran. It will be only necessary to decide whether the demurrer to the bill, as amended May 24, 1906, should have been sustained and the bill dismissed, and whether permission should have been refused to file the amendments presented to the court June 16, 1906. It appears from the bill as amended, that Richard Curran in his answer to the original bill admitted that the deed was in blank when Isabella signed it, and was subsequently filled in, as a warranty deed from Isabella Curran and Richard Curran to the complainant Prindiville, and that she did not acknowledge it, and it also' appears from the amended bill that Richard Curran, knowing that Isabella merely signed a blank form for a deed, and did not acknowledge the deed at any time, delivered the apparent deed to the complainant Prindiville, and falsely represented to him that it was made, executed and acknowledged by his wife, Isabella Curran, and that, by means of such delivery and false representation, he procured satisfaction of the judgment in Bishop v. Curran to be entered on the record. It further appears from the supplemental bill that after the filing of the original bill and the discovery of the mistake in the description of the premises in the apparent deed, Prindiville and the McArdles paid to Bishop, by his request, his judgment in the attachment suit against Richard Curran, and Bishop conveyed to complainant Prindiville, in consideration of such payment, his judgment against Curran and his interest in the lots in question. A supplemental bill is proper when facts have occurred since the filing of the original bill which it is necessary to bring to the attention of the court, and, in such case, the supplemental bill is, in effect, an amendment of the original bill. Mix v. Beach, 46 Ill. 311, 314; Story on Eq. Pl., 9th ed., p. 295, sec. 332. Therefore, the new matter thus introduced is to be treated as an amendment of the original bill. The delivery of the apparent deed by Curran to Prindiville, for the purpose of procuring satisfaction of Bishop’s judgment, he well knowing that, it was not the deed of his wife and was not acknowledged by her, as it purported to be, was, of itself, a false representation and a gross fraud, and if Curran filled in the blank signed by Isabella Curran, or caused it to be filled in by another, proof of which is admissible under the averments of the amended bill, he was not only guilty of fraud, but of deliberate forgery. Wilson v. S. Park Commissioners, 70 Ill. 46; Langdon v. The People, 133 ib: 382; Hurd’s Rev. Stats. 1905, p. 693, parag. 105.

It is contended that the complainants have a remedy .at law, by applying to the court in which the judgment in Bishop v. Curran was rendered, to set' aside the entry of satisfaction of that judgment. Conceding that the law court has power to set aside the entry of satisfaction on a proper showing, the complainants, before filing the original bill, were in no position to make such showing. Before that time all they knew was that, in the apparent warranty deed, there had been a mistake made in the description of the premises which it was intended to convey, in writing, ‘ ‘ range 14” instead of range 15. They had no knowledge that the apparent deed was not the deed of Isabella Curran until the defendants were compelled, by order of the court, to answer specifically and under oath, the several allegations of the original bill, and the interrogatories propounded to them by the complainants. If complainants had applied to the law court to cancel the entry of satisfaction of the judgment, on the ground of the mistake in the apparent deed, that court would probably have informed them that their remedy was in a court of equity for reformation of the deed, which court, having entertained the bill for that purpose, would retain it for cancellation of the entry of satisfaction and all other legitimate purposes. Manifestly, the complainants could not have procured from' the defendants the information which they disclosed in this cause, reluctantly and under pressure, that the apparent deed was not, in law, a genuine deed.

The McArdles were the attorneys of Bishop, and as such were liable to him for negligence in matters entrusted to them by him, and, as we think, were, liable for permitting the acceptance of a deed in which the premises intended to be conveyed were misdescribed. Prindiville, in accepting the deed, was acting as trustee for Bishop, and it was his duty as such to see that the premises intended to be conveyed were conveyed by proper description in the apparent deed, before causing satisfaction of the judgment to be entered on the record. Prindiville and the McArdles, believing themselves liable to Bishop for the mistake in the deed, and the entry of satisfaction of the judgment, paid Bishop, on his demand, the amount of said judgment, and, at the same time, Bishop assigned to Prindiville the judgment and his interest in the lots intended to be conveyed to Prindiville. Had they not paid Bishop on his demand they were certainly liable to be sued by him.

Prindiville and the McArdles claim that they are entitled to be subrogated to whatever rights Bishop had in respect to his judgment against Curran and the enforcement thereof, and, assuming the truth of the averments of the amended and supplemental bills, we think they are so entitled. They paid to Bishop in full the amount of his judgment, and took from him an assignment thereof, to Prindiville, as trustee for himself and the McArdles, and whatever interest he had in the lots, which interest, if the lots belonged to Bichard Curran, was at least a lien by virtue of the judgment and the execution issued in pursuance thereof. The evident intention was, that they, thereafter, should stand in .Bishop’s place in respect to the judgment and all means of enforcing payment of it.

In Home Savings Bank v. Bierstadt, 168 Ill. 618, the court say: “Subrogation, as a principle of equity jurisprudence is generally confined to the relation of principal and surety and guarantors, or to a case where a person is compelled to remove a superior title to that held by him in order to protect his own, and also to cases of insurers. The general principle of subrogation is confined and limited to these classes of cases. (Bishop v. O’Conner, 69 Ill. 431; Borders v. Hodges, 154 id. 498.) Whilst these general heads include the doctrine and principles of subrogation, that doctrine has been steadily extending and growing in importance and extent in its application to various subjects and classes of persons. This equitable principle is enforced solely for the accomplishment of substantial justice, where one has an equity to invoke which cannot injure an innocent person. The right of subrogation which springs from the mere fact of the payment of a debt, and which is included under the heads first above stated, is what is termed legal subrogation, and exists only where included within those classes.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Galway v. City of Chicago
207 Ill. App. 304 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1917)
Prindeville v. Curran
156 Ill. App. 278 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1910)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
132 Ill. App. 162, 1907 Ill. App. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prindiville-v-curran-illappct-1907.