Swift v. Castle

23 Ill. 209
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedApril 15, 1859
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 23 Ill. 209 (Swift v. Castle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Swift v. Castle, 23 Ill. 209 (Ill. 1859).

Opinions

Walker, J.

It is urged as error, that the court below admitted improper evidence. It may be true that' evidence.was read on the hearing that was not pertinent to the issue, and yet there be no error for which the decree should be reversed. The question presented upon the trial before the chancellor, as well as in the appellate court, is, upon all the legitimate evidence in the cause, what decree should be rendered. The chancellor being the judge of both the law and evidence, the presumption is, that in rendering his decree he will only regard that which is legal and pertinent. When a trial is had before a jury, it is different, as then the court must first pass upon the admissibility of the evidence, and when admitted, the presumption is that they acted upon and considered all of the evidence before them as legitimate. When the party conceives that there is any irregularity or informality in taking the proofs, he may move to suppress depositions, and if the exceptions are overruled, he may except, but all questions as to the pertinency of evidence may be, and usually are, reserved to the hearing. All substantial exceptions may be taken on the hearing, either before or after the evidence is read, and the chancellor may determine - such exceptions as they are raised, or in forming his judgment upon which he bases his decree in the cause. Formal exceptions should be taken and determined before the hearing, for the reason that, if allowed, the party taking the depositions may, if proper, retake them, and avail himself of the benefit of the evidence. While it is not material when exceptions to the substance of evidence are determined, for if the evidence is not admissible under the issue, its presentation in any other form could not obviate the objection, and render it pertinent. Such a practice is more convenient than to separately pass upon the materiality of the various portions of evidence before the hearing ; it saves labor, time and expense, and is more satisfactorily determined when the issue, and all the evidence in the case, are before the court, on the hearing, than it could be when only an isolated portion is under consideration.

Evidence may be proper for one purpose and improper for another. It may be admissible as independent evidence, or only as dependent evidence. It may be admissible as tending to establish the issue, or it may be admissible as rebutting or supporting evidence. It may prove a fact, or it may only be a link in a chain which proves a fact. And if the court must, on a motion interposed before the hearing to suppress evidence, examine into all of the facts proved in the case to determine its materiality, it would amount to the labor of a trial of the cause on each motion, and if all the evidence was not then taken, the chancellor, in many cases, could not know but evidence might still be taken which would render what then appeared to be immaterial, highly important on the hearing. It is the correct practice for the chancellor, after the evidence is heard, to regard no portion of it which is immaterial or illegal, and to decide the case alone on the legal evidence adduced. Such is believed to have been the uniform practice which has been adopted from considerations of convenience, and is in no way calculated to hinder or delay the administration of justice, and no reason has been suggested, nor is any perceived, why it should be changed. Nor is it necessary to preserve exceptions to the rulings of the court in allowing or overruling exceptions to answers, depositions, or decrees, in a chancery proceeding, as in contemplation of law, all the decisions on motions, all of the evidence in the cause, and the decrees announced by the court, are matters of record. The office of a bill of exceptions is to introduce that into the record which, without its use, would not be a part of the record.

It is urged as a ground for setting aside the trust deeds executed to Swift by the trustee, the cestui que trust and her husband, that they were unauthorized, and were not legally binding upon the cestui que trust. The question of whether a- feme covert cestui que trust may dispose of her beneficial interest in the trust property by appointment, in all cases where she is not in terms restrained from doing so by the instrument creating the trust, has undergone much discussion by the various courts of this country and Great Britain. And upon an examination of the adjudged cases, they are found to be inharmonious and conflicting. One portion of them holding that a feme covert may exercise all the powers of a feme sole in alienating her separate property, unless restrained by the express language of the instrument creating the trust. While another, and much the larger class, hold that by her marriage she loses all power to contract in her own right, and that she and the husband, by . that relation, become one person in law, and that her legal existence is merged in his, so long as coverture exists, and that she can perform no legal or binding act, in reference to her separate property, but such as is authorized by the instrument creating the trust.

In determining this question, in the conflict of adjudged cases, it may be well to review some of the decisions of the various courts in which this question has been presented and judicially determined. In the case of the M. E. Church v. Jaques, 3 J. C. R. 77, Chancellor Kent, before whom the case was heard, with his usual industry and accuracy, with great learning and ability, after having carefully reviewed all the English decisions at great length, in delivering his opinion, says:

“ I apprehend we may conclude, (though I do it with unfeigned diffidence, considering how great talents and learning, by a succession of distinguished men, have been exhausted on the subject,) that the English decisions are so floating and contradictory, as to leave us the liberty of adopting the true principle of these settlements. Instead of holding that the wife is a feme sole, to all intents and purposes, as to her separate property, she ought only to be deemed a feme sole, sub modo, or to the extent of the power clearly given by the settlement. Instead of maintaining that she has an absolute power of disposition, unless specially sustained by the instrument, the converse of the proposition would be more correct, that she has no power but what is specially given, and to be exercised only in the mode prescribed, if any there be. Her incapacity is general; and the exception is to be taken strictly, and to be shown in every case, because it is against the general policy and immemorial doctrine of the law. These very settlements are intended to protect her weakness against her husband’s power, and her maintenance against his dissipation. It is a protection which this court allows her to assume, or her friends to give, and it ought not to be rendered illusory.”

“ The doctrine runs through all the cases, that the intention of the settlement is to govern, and that it must be collected from the terms of the instrument. When it says, she may appoint by will, it does not mean that she may likewise appoint by deed; when it permits her to appoint by deed, it cannot mean, that giving a bond, or note, or parol promise, without reference to the property, or making a parol gift, is such an appointment. So, when it says that she is to receive from her trustee the income of her property, as it, from time to time, may grow due, it does not mean that she may, by anticipation, dispose at once of all that income.

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Bluebook (online)
23 Ill. 209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swift-v-castle-ill-1859.