Strong v. Friedman

261 Ill. App. 602, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 65
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 19, 1931
DocketGen. No. 34,712
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 261 Ill. App. 602 (Strong v. Friedman) 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
Strong v. Friedman, 261 Ill. App. 602, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 65 (Ill. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Scanlan

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal by G-arard Trust Company, receiver, from an order disallowing certain items stated in its first and final reports and accounts.

The verified bill sought to foreclose a first mortgage trust deed securing an issue of bonds totaling $285,000 and prayed a partial foreclosure of the mortgage.for nonpayment of interest and a principal prepayment. The mortgaged property consists of certain land and a six-story building located thereon,- commonly known as 5218-5222 Kenwood avenue, Chicago. The building, an apartment hotel, contains 65 furnished apartments. Neither the trustee nor the bondholders had any mortgage or lien upon the furniture or personal property in the building. The receiver, appellant, was the actual owner of the five bonds which co-complainant Strong alleged, in the bill, he owned, and it also acquired other bonds secured by the trust deed as they became in default. Strong, an employee of appellant, was a mere dummy complainant. Appellant was, in fact, the complainant. Upon motion of complainants appellant was appointed receiver. The solicitors for Strong thereafter also acted for appellant. The bill made Ben Friedman, a bachelor,, Ernest A. Hoerich, as Trustee, etc., Jacob S. Friedman and Beva Friedman, his wife, and the- unknown owner or owners, etc., defendants. None of these parties answered or demurred to the bill. Albert Pick & Company held a chattel mortgage on the furniture and furnishings in the building, and after appellant took possession of the premises the former commenced proceedings to foreclose the mortgage through the said solicitors, who, it appears, were its regular attorneys. Without informing, the chancellor of the situation, Strong, acting for appellant, purchased the furniture and furnishings at the foreclosure sale for the sum of $23,000. $1,000 of this amount was then paid in cash to Pick & Company by appellant out of receivership funds, and Strong gave to Pick & Company a chattel mortgage on the furniture and furnishings for the balance, $22,000, payable in instalments of $500 each month, together with interest. The same solicitors represented Pick & Company in this matter. Thereafter, appellant, without authority from the chancellor, paid, from month to month, the chattel mortgage notes, which Strong had executed. The total sum paid, including the $1,000, was $5,096.25. The last payment was made in August, 1929. Henry S. Lederman, appellee, the owner of a junior mortgage, was not made a party to the bill, but on July 26, 1929, apparently by leave of court, he filed an answer to the bill. This answer did not make any charges of any kind against appellant. In September, 1929, appellant presented a petition which averred that Strong purchased the furniture at the chattel mortgage sale and that he was “now the owner of all the furniture and furnishings located in said hotel”; that “Strong has offered to lease the furniture and furnishings now located in said hotel to your petitioner during the term of this receivership at a monthly rental of $550.” The petition alleged that it would cost in excess of $25,000 to purchase new furniture to replace the old, and appellant prayed that it be allowed to pay to Strong a rental of $550 per month for the furniture. No mention was made in this petition of the relationship of the several parties interested, nor were the true circumstances of the Pick transaction stated, nor was the fact that payments had theretofore been made by appellant to Pick & Company on account of the chattel mortgage mentioned. Appellee filed an answer to this petition, in which he denies that Strong purchased the furniture and states that appellant “has been paying the sum of $550 per month upon said furniture to Albert Pick & Company, out of the moneys received by said Receiver from the rents, income and profits of the premises described in the bill of complaint on file herein, without the lawful authority of'this court,” and he questions the authority of appellant to purchase the furniture out of the rents and profits of the receivership property. In December, 1929, appellee filed a verified petition in which he avers “that he has recently discovered that the Gfarard Trust Company, a corporation, receiver herein, is the true and lawful owner of the various bonds and interest coupons sought to be foreclosed by the complainant herein; . . . that while said bill of complaint and supplemental bill of complaint aforementioned allege that Lee Strong is the owner of the principal bonds and interest coupons therein referred to, in truth and in fact, it will appear from an examination and investigation of the records of the Garard Trust Company, a corporation, that the said . . . Company is the actual owner of said principal bonds and interest coupons; . . . that through some pre-arrangement between said . . . Company, . . . who is acting as receiver herein, and Albert Pick & Company, a corporation, and the solicitors for the complainant herein, it was arranged to foreclose the chattel mortgage heretofore existing on the furniture and equipment in the premises described in the bill . . . and ... it was understood and agreed that the complainant herein was to purchase the chattels referred to in said chattel mortgage, and that the receiver herein . . . was to pay Albert Pick & Company the sum of $500 per month out of the rents, income and profits of the receivership premises”; that pursuant to said prearrangement appellant paid to Pick & Company several thousand dollars on account of the purchase price of said chattels; that the chattel mortgage sale was held by Strong’s solicitors without the statutory notice in such cases made and provided; that appellant is not a proper .person to act as receiver “because of its diverse interest herein, ’ ’ and the petition prays that appellant be removed as receiver and a new receiver appointed. Appellant then tendered its resignation and the chancellor entered an order accepting it and ordering appellant to file its final account and report on or before January 20, 1930, and appointing Joseph H. Optner receiver. On January 25, 1930, appellant filed its final report and account. Appellee filed objections to certain items in the first and final reports and accounts. Upon a hearing the chancellor sustained objections to the sum of $5,096.25 that had been paid by appellant on account of the chattel mortgage notes executed and delivered to Pick & Company by Strong, and also to certain other items, and appellant was ordered to recast its account. At the time of this hearing appellant was in the hands of a receiver, and it appeared that it had not turned over to the new receiver any of the funds that belonged to the receivership, although it had promised, some time before, to turn over at once to the new receiver $8,000 or $9,000.

The only point raised by appellant is thus stated in its brief: “Appellant upholds payments of $5,096.25 on the furniture. . . . The only question before tin's court is whether appellant is entitled to an allowance for the moneys paid by it to Pick & Company.”

Appellant concedes that no order was ever entered by the chancellor authorizing it to make the payments to Pick & Company, and it further concedes that “the receiver should not have made payments with respect to the chattel mortgage,” and that it had no right to make such payments, but it claims that they were “authorized by Frank M.

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Bluebook (online)
261 Ill. App. 602, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 65, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/strong-v-friedman-illappct-1931.