Ravlin v. Chicago, Aurora & De Kalb Railroad

217 Ill. App. 213, 1920 Ill. App. LEXIS 49
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 9, 1920
DocketGen. No. 6,593
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 217 Ill. App. 213 (Ravlin v. Chicago, Aurora & De Kalb Railroad) 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
Ravlin v. Chicago, Aurora & De Kalb Railroad, 217 Ill. App. 213, 1920 Ill. App. LEXIS 49 (Ill. Ct. App. 1920).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Dibell

delivered the opinion of the court.

The Chicago, Aurora & De Kalb Bailroad Company (hereinafter called the company) operates an interurban road. In 1913, J. H. Bliss and W. S. Kirby were appointed receivers of the company in this cause and served until July 10, 1916, when Prank W. Cherry became receiver. At the September term, 1917, of the circuit -court of Kane county, Cherry resigned. His final report ivas approved and his resignation accepted. Before the end of that term, on motion of Enos Doan and George E. May, creditors of the company, the order approving said report was vacated. Thereafter Doan and May, by leave of court, filed an intervening petition, attacking various acts of Cherry as receiver, and especially charging that while receiver he had made large profits from secret sales of the stock and bonds of said company. About that time the holder of certain bonds of the company filed a bill to foreclose the trust deed securing said bonds, and in that cause Harvey Gunsul was appointed receiver of the company. Thereafter, Gunsul, as receiver, by leave of court filed in this cause an intervening petition attacking the conduct of Cherry as receiver, which petition was similar to that of Doan and May. Cherry answered these petitions and they were heard together, and there was a decree directing Cherry to pay to Gunsul as receiver $47,066.71 as profit which the court found Cherry, while receiver, had made on the sale of certain securities of the company, and $3,000 which the court found Cherry had paid a certain bank without authority of the court, and $2,350 which the court found he had paid his attorney without authority of the court. Cherry sued out a writ of error to review said decree. Gunsul assigned cross-errors, in which he insisted that the court should have required Cherry to repay all compensation for his services as receiver for which he had been credited in his report; and should have charged Cherry with interest at 5 per cent per annum upon said profits and upon the $3,000 paid the bank. We affirmed the main portion of the decree, but reversed it upon some minor matters. , There was one error in the opinion we then filed in reciting an important date, but the other parts of the opinion showed it was merely a clerical error' and the court did not mistake the fact but intended to recite the true date. Cherry petitioned for a rehearing and so earnestly contended that a great injustice had been done him that we granted a rehearing.

On February 13, 1917, in a suit brought against Cherry as receiver, certain bonds of the company were sold by the master in chancery (which office Gunsul then held), which shortly thereafter were turned over to a bank for one H. H. Evans. It is claimed by the petitioners that said proceeding was instituted at the expense of Cherry and by his procurement while he was receiver; that the object was to enable him to fulfil a contract he individually had with Evans; that he concealed from the court that he had such contract with Evans and had a written agreement with Evans by which Evans was to pay much more for said bonds than they brought at said sale; that thereby while receiver and because of his concealment of the true facts from the court, Cherry made a large profit for himself; and that he must in equity surrender that profit. Cherry contends that he completed his contract with Evans and earned and obtained all his profits on or before June 28, 1916, before he became receiver, and that he did nothing afterwards inconsistent with his duty as receiver, and that whatever he did afterwards in the matter was at the request of Evans and for the accommodation of Evans, and without profit to himself, and without his having any interest therein.

The law is well settled that a receiver will not be permitted to derive personal profit out of his office, other than the compensation which the court may allow him, and that he may not traffic in his own behalf in the property committed to him by virtue of his office. Michoud v. Girod, 4 How. (U. S.) 503; Magruder v. Drury, 235 U. S. 106; Baker v. Schofield, 243 U. S. 114; 34 Cyc. 254, 255. A receiver is in legal effect a trustee. The above rule was announced as to trustees in Farwell v. Pyle-Nat. Elec. Headlight Co., 289 Ill. 157, and in cases there cited.

There are between 80 and 100 exhibits in this case, some of them containing lengthy and involved financial propositions, acceptances thereof, modifications, trust agreements, financial statements, correspondence, decrees and orders in another cause, and the like. A full statement of all the transactions in the stocks and bonds of this company, and of all the schemes and attempted schemes concerning it in which the parties have been involved, with a full explanation of the reasons for every step, would fill a volume. We deem it sufficient to give a mere outline of the transactions.

Henry H. Evans of Aurora,, a capitalist, had ob.tained charters for two interurban roads. He conceived the plan of buying a controlling interest in the stocks and bonds of this company and uniting the property of this company with his other interurban schemes. The company had a capital stock of $950,000. It had issued $200,000 of first mortgage bonds, secured by a first trust deed, and thereafter had executed a second trust deed, securing $750,000 of what it called general mortgage bonds. Only a portion of the latter had been issued, and $50,000 of the first mortgage bonds had been taken up and reissued. The par value óf each share of capital stock and of each bond was $100. It seems that frequently a certificate for one or_ two shares of stock was issued with one bond, when the latter was sold, in other words, the bonds had been used as a vehicle for the s.ale of the stock. It was a controlling interest in the capital stock and in the outstanding mortgage bonds of this company which Evans wished to secure. Cherry had had experience in handling such properties. Evans orally offered to Cherry that he would pay Cherry certain prices for enough of said stocks and bonds to secure control. Evans made it a condition with Cherry that he (Evans) was not to be known in the transaction. Cherry made investigations to see whether those securities could be obtained. He found that theretofore the company had given various promissory notes to various banks, and that each of said notes had been indorsed by the seven directors of the company, who were George, Richmond, Bliss, Erlenborn, Loser, Klein and Ravlin; that after-wards, said banks demanded further security, said directors had deposited with said bank, as collateral security, a large number, of bonds of the company, some of them being first mortgage bonds and others second- or general mortgage bonds, and that after-wards, the banks demanding payment, said notes had been taken up by said indorsers with their respective collateral securities, and placed in the hands of W. C. Estee under a trust agreement by which he was to hold said securities for the benefit of said seven directors, each of whom had an equitable lien upon one-seventh thereof, and said trustee gave to each of said seven directors a separate paper, evidencing the trust. Each of said directors also owned a large amount of the capital stock of the company, said to have aggregated $387,600 at par value. Thereupon Cherry sought to buy said bonds and stock. He found that he could not at that time deal with George or Erlenbom.

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Related

Gunsul v. American Surety Co.
139 N.E. 620 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1923)
Gunsul v. American Surety Co. of New York
225 Ill. App. 76 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1922)

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217 Ill. App. 213, 1920 Ill. App. LEXIS 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ravlin-v-chicago-aurora-de-kalb-railroad-illappct-1920.