Rehm v. Halverson

94 Ill. App. 627, 1900 Ill. App. LEXIS 715
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 10, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 94 Ill. App. 627 (Rehm v. Halverson) 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
Rehm v. Halverson, 94 Ill. App. 627, 1900 Ill. App. LEXIS 715 (Ill. Ct. App. 1901).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Shepard

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a judgment recovered in favor of the appellee in a suit brought by him against one Zaccone, as principal, and the appellant, Rehm, as surety, on an appeal bond.

The bond was given on an appeal to the Circuit Court from a judgment of restitution by a justice of the peace in a forcible detainer suit brought by appellee against Zaccone, the principal.

The suit on the bond ivas also begun before a justice of the peace, and was brought against both Zaccone and the appellant, Rehm. The latter only was served, the summons being returned “ not found ” as to Zaccone, and judgment was rendered by the justice against Rehm alone. Rehm appealed to the Circuit Court, where, again, judgment against him was recovered, and this appeal, now before us, has followed.

Both obligors on the bond were sued. Zaccone was not served and did not appear. Rehm was served and did did appear. It was proper practice to take judgment against him, only. Coursen v. Browning, 86 Ill. 57; Rev. Stat. Ch. 76 (entitled “Joint Rights and Obligations”), Sec. 3.

It is objected, also, that because Zaccone was alone made a party defendant in the forcible detainer suit, without joining in that suit one Spano, who was the original lessee of the premises and under whom Zaccone entered, jurisdiction was not obtained to enter the judgment of restitution against Zaccone only, and therefore there was not jurisdiction of the necessary parties in this suit on the bond.

Appellee, who was the original lessor to Spano, had accepted from Spano a surrender of the lease before the forcible detainer suit was begun. Irrespective of whether such a surrender deprived Zaccone of any rights as between himself and the appellee, or not, appellee, found him in adverse possession of the premises, and to determine those rights, whatever they may have been, appellee bad the right to bring the forcible detainer proceedings against him. Spano having surrendered the lease and no longer holding the premises against appellee, it was not necessary to join him in the idle ceremony of making him a party defendant to the forcible detainer proceedings. Zaccone, alone, was holding out against appellee, and was the only person that needed to be made a party, or against whom a judgment of restitution was necessary, in order to repossess appellee of the premises. Doubtless it would have been otherwise if Spano, the lessee, were still holding under his lease. Espen v. Hinchliffe, 131 Ill. 468. Careful consideration of the last cited case does not, in our opinion, justify the contention Of appellant, that it requires the bringing of the action against the lessee jointly with those holding under him, where the lessee is by his own voluntary act out of possession and without claim of right to possession. The question of the right to possession is then wholly between the owner, entitled to the reversion, and those in possession. Forcible Detainer Act, Sec. 15.

But it is insisted that, independent of all else, the appeal in which the bond was given was prosecuted with effect, and therefore no recovery could be had under the bond. The condition of the bond is as follows:

“The condition of the above obligation is such, that whereas, the said Enoch Halverson did, on the 11th day of January, 1898, before Jarvis Blume, a justice of the peace for the county of Cook, recover a judgment against G. Zaccone, for the restitution of certain premises described in the plaint, to wit: The entire building known as JSTo. 57 Grand avenue in the city of Chicago, county of Cook and State of Illinois, and costs of suit, from which said judgment the said G. Zaccone has taken an appeal to the Circuit Court of Cook County and State of Illinois. Noxv, if the said G. Zaccone shall prosecute his appeal with effect and pay all rent now due, and that may become due, before the final termination of this suit, and all damages and loss which the said plaintiff may sustain by reason of the withholding of the premises in controversy, and by reason of any injury done thereto, during such withholding, together with all costs, until the restitution of the possession thereof to thb plaintiff in case the judgment from which this appeal is taken is affirmed or appeal dismissed, then the above obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and effect.”

The judgment for restitution given by the justice of the peace, in the forcible detainer suit in which the bond was given, was for “ the entire building known as No. 57 Grand avenue,” as recited in the bond. The judgment of the Circuit Court on the appeal, was for “the first floor and one-half of the basement, containing one ice-box, of the building No. 57 Grand avenue.” Was the appeal prosecuted with effect? Wé think it was not. And was the judgment affirmed ? We think it was.

Section 14 of the forcible detainer act provides that if it shall appear that the plaintiff is entitled to the possession of only a part of the premises claimed, the judgment and execution shall be for that part only, etc.

It was doubtless under that section that the Circuit Court acted in giving judgment for a part only of the premises claimed in the complaint filed with the justice of the peace. And we can not doubt its right to do so. Now, that statute being in force at the time the appeal bond was given, was it not given in contemplation of the statute ? In other words, did not the statute, in legal effect, enter into and form a part of the bond ?

If it did, then it is plain the appeal was not prosecuted with effect, for the judgment that was rendered by the Circuit Court was such a one as the bond itself was conditioned against.

“ It is manifest that a statutory bond, where the form is prescribed, and it is observed, will be construed to have the effect given by the statute, as it enters into and forms a part of the instrument.” Hibbard v. McKinley, 28 Ill. 240.

The case of Harding v. Kuessner, 172 Ill. 125, is one where the condition of the appeal bond was that appellant would “ prosecute its appeal with effect,” and pay the judgment appealed from in case of an affirmance; and the argument of counsel was that the judgment was not affirmed because the Appellate Court affirmed the judgment for a less sum than the judgment of the court below-—a remittitur having been required as a condition of affirmance. The Supreme Court, speaking by the present Chief Justice' Boggs, after alluding to the practice and effect of remittiturs entered in appeal cases, said :

<J It is to be presumed the appellants entered into the bond sued on in the case at bar in view of the power so possessed by the Appellate Court, and therefore the true construction of the condition of the bond is, the obligors obligated themselves to pay any amount for which a judgment of affirmance should be entered in the Appellate Court.”

See also, the reasoning of this court upon the same subject, in Best Brewing Co. v. Klassen, 85 Ill. App. 464; and Ives v. Hulee, 17 Ill. App. 35; Foster v. Epps, 27 Ill. App. 235.

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Bluebook (online)
94 Ill. App. 627, 1900 Ill. App. LEXIS 715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rehm-v-halverson-illappct-1901.