Rees v. Peltzer

1 Ill. App. 315
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 15, 1878
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1 Ill. App. 315 (Rees v. Peltzer) 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
Rees v. Peltzer, 1 Ill. App. 315 (Ill. Ct. App. 1878).

Opinion

Bailey, J.

This was an action of debt on an injunction bond, brought by Otto Peltzer, Gustavus E. Hoifman, Edward A. Fox, and six other's, against James H. Eees, Elisha E. Hundley, Luther H. Pierce, Mahlon D. Ogden and Edward H. Sheldon.

The declaration describes a bond in the penal sum of $10,-000, executed by the defendants to the plaintiffs, bearing date September 30th, 1872, and which, after reciting that said Eees, Ilundley and Pierce had filed their bill of complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook county, against said Peltzer, Hoffman, Fox, and said six other obligees, for an injunction to restrain them from further proceeding to publish “ Peltzer’s Atlas of Chicago,” and that said court had allowed an injunction for that purpose upon said Bees, Hundley and Pierce, giving bond and security as provided by law, was conditioned for the payment by said Bees, Hundley and Pierce to said obligees- of all costs and damages that should accrue by reason of the wrongful suing out of said injunction, and also all costs and damages which should be awarded against said complainants in case said injunction should be dissolved.

The circumstances out of which the controversy grew are briefly as follows: Sometime prior to the great fire of October, 1871, the firm of Bees, Pierce & Co., consisting of said Bees, Hundley and Pierce, real estate dealers, had caused to be made for their own use in their business, a complete set of maps and plats of the city of Chicago, including its several additions arid subdivisions. Said maps and plats, about two hundred and eighty in number, were drawn upon a uniform scale of one hundred feet to the inch, so that each covered about eighty acres of land, and was a complete representation of the several lots, blocks, streets and alleys therein contained, with the measurements and locations thereof. These maps and pla^s were originally compiled by taking copies of those on record in the public offices of the county, and were afterwards improved and perfected from data derived from other authentic sources. In the course of their preparation, which had occupied many years, a large amount of money, skill, judgment and labor had been expended, whereby they had been brought to a high degree of perfection, and were the source of great profit to the proprietors. It also appears that a similar set of maps and plats of the city of Chicago, with its varions additions and subdivisions, had in like manner been procured by the firm of Ogden & Sheldon, who were also dealers in real estate, for use in their business.

After the destruction of the public records of the county by the great fire of October, 1871, these two sets of maps and plats, as it appears, were the only complete maps of Chicago in existence compiled from the public records or other authentic sources. An agreement was thereupon entered into between Eees, Pierce & Co. and Ogden & Sheldon, to use the two sets jointly, and divide equally between the two firms the profits arising therefrom. Subsequently, on application of Otto Peltzer, who was then clerk of the board of public works of Chicago, permission was given by said firms to take a copy of said maps and plats for the use of said board, upon the distinct understanding and agreement that the copy thus obtained should not be copied or published or used in any manner except for the official purposes of the board. ■ It was afterwards ascertained that said Peltzer, notwithstanding said agreement, had taken copies of the maps and plats thus in possession of the board, and that he, in company with said Hoffman and Fox, was engaged in lithographing and publishing the same for sale as “ Peltzer’s Atlas of Chicago.”

To restrain the publication of said atlas, said Eees, Pierce & Co., on the 30th day of September, 1872, filed in the Circuit Court of Cook county their bill in chancery against said Peltzer, Hoffman and Fox, and six other persons, composing a firm of lithographers, who were engaged in lithographing said maps, praying for an injunction restraining such publication. On this bill the Circuit Judge endorsed an order allowing the injunction, on complainants filing a bond in the sum of $10,000, with Ogden and Sheldon as sureties, conditioned according to law. In pursuance of this order, the bond described in the declaration in this suit was executed, and an injunction issued.

On the 11th day of December, 1872, the injunction suit was heard in the Circuit Court, and upon such hearing the bill was dismissed for want of equity. The complainants, the instant this decision was rendered, took an appeal therefrom to the Supreme Court, and filed their appeal bond in the penal sum of $20,000, conditioned for the due prosecution of said appeal and the payment of costs, interest and damages rendered or to be rendered against the complainants, in case said decree should be affirmed in the Supreme Court. It appears that no suggestion of damages was filed in the Circuit Court at the time of the entry of the decree dismissing the.bill, and no damages were awarded against the complainant in that court in the chancery suit. On the 16th day of June, 1875, the Supreme Court rendered its decision affirming the decree of the Circuit Court.

On the trial of the present suit, appellees were permitted to prove the additional expense and labor to which Peltzer, Hoffman and Fox were necessarily put in publishing their atlas by reason of said injunction, both before the entry of the decree of the Circuit Court and during the pendency of said appeal, and also the reasonable value of counsel fees for services in litigating the injunction suit, both in the Circuit and Supreme Courts. The, jury found the issues for appellees, and assessed' the damages sustained by Peltzer, Hoffman and Fox by reason of the breaches of said bond at $6,886, specifying in their verdict the items of which said damages were composed, as follows: For legal services, $2,500; for the expenses of getting out the new maps, $2,663; for interest on same from June 9th, 1873, to December 8th, 1877, $723; for extra services by Peltzer, $1,000. On this verdict judgment was rendered in favor of appellees against appellants for $10,000 debt, and $6,886 damages, the debt to be discharged on payment of the damages.

Appellants have urged a number of grounds for the reversal of this judgment, which, so far as we deem necessary to a proper decision of the case, we will now consider in their order.

It is ^insisted that, as there were no damages awarded by the Court of Chancery upon the dissolution of the injunction, as provided by the act of 1861, none can now be recovered in this suit. The act referred to is as follows :

“In all'cases where an injunction is dissolved by any Court of Chancery in this State, the court after dissolving such injunction, and before finally disposing of the suit, upon the party claiming damages by reason of such injunction, suggesting in writing the nature and amount thereof, shall hear evidence and assess damages as the nature of the case may require, and to equity appertain to the party damnified by such injunction, and may award execution to collect the same.” Laws 1861, p. 133.

This act no doubt governs the rights of the parties under the bond in question so far as applicable, unaffected by the amendment of 1874, said bond having been executed prior to said amendment. Such was the holding of the Supreme Court in the recent case of Mix v. Vail et al. (unreported).

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Bluebook (online)
1 Ill. App. 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rees-v-peltzer-illappct-1878.