Rosenthal v. Wald

252 Ill. App. 383, 1929 Ill. App. LEXIS 698
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 17, 1929
DocketGen. No. 33,120
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 252 Ill. App. 383 (Rosenthal v. Wald) 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
Rosenthal v. Wald, 252 Ill. App. 383, 1929 Ill. App. LEXIS 698 (Ill. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Holdom

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action for rent which terminated in a judgment by default against defendant for the lack of an appearance on his part, rendered on the verdict of a jury in the sum of $375.65.

The cause was originally upon the short cause calendar and on March 4, 1927, owing to the plaintiff not being present in court in person or by counsel, when the cause was called for trial, it was ordered that the “cause be stricken from short cause calendar and placed on regular place on jury calendar. ’ ’ On May 29, 1928, there was a trial ex parte before the court and jury with a resulting verdict against defendant for $375.65, with a judgment thereon. On July 16, 1928, the defendants filed a motion to vacate the judgment of May 29,1928, and to set aside the verdict, and with such motion there was also filed a petition in which it is alleged that on the 18th day of June, 1926, defendant caused his appearance and a jury demand to be filed, and on the 2nd day of July, 1926, an order was entered placing the cause “on the next jury calendar”; that on October 11,1926, an order was entered on motion of plaintiff, ordering the cause placed on the short .cause calendar and setting the same for trial on November 22, 1926, at 9:30 a. m., and that said cause came on for trial on the last-mentioned date on the short cause calendar, and that the same was thereafter continued from time to time until the 4th day of March, 1927; that on said last-mentioned date defendant and his witnesses were present and answered “ready for trial”; that the plaintiff in said cause being absent, it was then ordered that the cause be stricken from the short cause calendar, and placed on the jury calendar, the half sheet showing the order as follows: “Cause stricken from short cause cal. and pi. on reg. pi. J. Cal.” which being extended means that the cause was stricken from the short cause calendar and placed on regular place jury calendar; that between October 11, 1926, and March 4, 1927, the regular jury calendar of the municipal court was printed and distributed and the cause then being on the short cause calendar was not printed on the jury calendar or given a number or place thereon, as shown by the regular printed jury calendar of said court dated February 19, 1927; that said jury calendar, which provided no place for the above entitled cause, was called and extended from week to week, and that the call of the jury calendar was not completed and the end of such call not reached; that the cause was never on the jury calendar and never given a calendar number thereon, and therefore had no place thereon; that at the time of the order, the jury calendar then in circulation, being that of February, 1927, was the guide of attorneys who had pending litigation thereon who were obliged to watch the same from day to day; that the cause having been on March 4, 1927, ordered stricken from the calendar, it was then ordered on the jury calendar, and that the attorney for defendant believing that the same would appear in its regular place on the next jury calendar thereafter to be published, with all other cases ordered placed thereon, so that in consequence thereof informed his client that the matter would appear on the next jury calendar and accordingly he was awaiting the completion of the call of the then jury calendar and the issue of the next jury calendar, which would show, as he believed, the calendar position and number of this cause; that on the 8th day of May, 1928, the cause was called before Judge Robert E. G-entzel, and was set for trial for May 29,1928; that neither defendant nor his attorney received any notice from plaintiff or his attorney, or in any other manner, that the cause had been placed on Judge Gentzel’s call on May 8,1928, and that no notice was had by defendant or his attorney that the trial had been set for May 29, 1928, and that in the absence of defendant there was an ex parte trial before the court and jury, and the judgment aforesaid was rendered, and that defendant did not discover that said judgment had been entered until the 9th day of July, 1928, and the petitioner prayed that because of the error in the facts alleged in said petition, which do not appear on the face of the record, that the court enter an order vacating and setting aside the judgment last aforesaid, and setting the cause for trial on its merits at a short date. Plaintiffs did not answer the petition, neither were any of its averments of fact denied by plaintiff on the hearing. *

On July 31,1928, the motion to vacate the judgment was overruled and this appeal from such order prayed and perfected.

The abstract of the record shows that “the court holds on the face of this petition that there has been no showing made of any error of fact that would justify me as a matter of law in vacating the judgment entered May 29, 1928.”

Plaintiff has not followed this appeal.

There is no evidence in this record as to how the cause was put upon any other calendar, if it was so put, after it was stricken from the short cause calendar. It is surmised without warrant, and is the only explanation afforded regarding the matter, that the clerk placed the cause on the February, 1927, civil jury trial calendar of the court. It is admitted that no notice of the calling of the case for trial or the placing of the same on any other calendar than that of the short cause calendar was given to plaintiff or its attorney, and if it was so placed without such notice by the clerk, then, there being no order of court authorizing him so to do, the so doing was a misprision of the clerk. The order of March 4, 1927, is “cause stricken from short cause calendar and placed on regular place on jury calendar.” Since the entry of that order and up 'to the time of the ex parte trial and the resulting judgment, there had been no trial calendar of the municipal court made up subsequent to that of February, 1927. Certainly it cannot be said, with any reasonable construction of the order, that it directed that the cause should be placed upon the February jury calendar. If the order had read on the regular place on the present jury calendar, there might be some reason for the argument that it was properly placed upon the February jury calendar. In striking the case from the short cause calendar the court had power to make such direction as it might see fit. We find no rule of the municipal court regulating the disposition of short cause calendar cases when they are stricken from that calendar. In the light of these facts, we must construe the order as a direction to the clerk to place the cause on the next jury calendar, succeeding the February, 1927, jury calendar. In ordinary procedure such would have been the course the cause would have taken.

By paragraph 407 of chapter 37, Cahill’s St. 1927, it is provided: “That until otherwise determined in the manner hereinafter provided, and except as by this Act is otherwise prescribed, the practice in the municipal court shall be the same, as near as may be, as that which may from time to time be prescribed by law for similar suits or proceedings in circuit courts. . .

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Bluebook (online)
252 Ill. App. 383, 1929 Ill. App. LEXIS 698, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rosenthal-v-wald-illappct-1929.