Truly Warner Co. v. Royal Indemnity Co.

259 Ill. App. 485, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 1345
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 26, 1931
DocketGen. No. 34,238
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 259 Ill. App. 485 (Truly Warner Co. v. Royal Indemnity Co.) 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
Truly Warner Co. v. Royal Indemnity Co., 259 Ill. App. 485, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 1345 (Ill. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Matchett

delivered the opinion of the court.

This suit is in sequence from Truly Warner Co., Inc. v. Kaufman Hats, Inc., 248 Ill. App. 632. In that case Kaufman Hats, Inc., appealed from a judgment in favor of Truly Warner Co., entered in the municipal court of Chicago in an action of forcible detainer to secure possession of certain premises in Chicago, the property of the trustees of the estate of Levi Z. Leiter. In perfecting that appeal the Boyal Indemnity Co., defendant here, signed the bond upon which plaintiff’s suit is based. The suit is brought by Truly Warner Co., Inc., against the Boyal Indemnity Co. alone.

Plaintiff filed a declaration to which defendant filed certain additional pleas. To these pleas a demurrer of plaintiff was sustained, defendant electing to stand by its default was entered, and damages were assessed by a jury. At the conclusion of the evidence the court peremptorily instructed the jury to find for plaintiff debt in the sum of $25,000 and damages to the same amount, and judgment in the usual form in actions of debt was entered on the verdict of the jury. That judgment defendant by this appeal seeks to reverse.

The declaration averred the beginning of the suit in forcible detainer, the entry of judgment therein in favor of plaintiff, the appeal to this court by Kaufman Hats, Inc., and the execution of the bond under seal on May 28,1926, by the Boyal Indemnity Co., and showed that the bond was in the form required by the statute. The condition of the bond was stated to be: “. . . if said Kaufman Hats, Inc., a corporation, shall duly prosecute its said appeal with effect, and moreover pay all rent now due or that may become due before the final determination of this suit, and also all damages and loss which the plaintiff has sustained, or may sustain by reason of the withholding of the premises in controversy and by reason of any injury done or to be done thereto during said withholding until the restitution of the possession thereof to the plaintiff, together with all costs accrued or that may accrue in case said judgment is affirmed or said appeal dismissed, then the above obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and effect.”

The declaration further averred the stay of the writ of restitution by virtue of this appeal bond and that Kaufman Hats, Inc., “withheld possession of the said premises from the 1st day of May, 1926, to the 1st day of January, 1928”; that the judgment, was affirmed by the Appellate Court, and that “said Kaufman Hats, Inc., became and was obligated to pay to the plaintiff the rent in said writing obligatory mentioned for the premises in said complaint in the said forcible detainer proceeding mentioned, for the time said premises were withheld from the plaintiff, which rent amounted to $25,000 and still remains unpaid; whereby an action has accrued to the plaintiff to demand of the defendant, Boyal Indemnity Company, a corporation, the sum of $25,000 above demanded,” etc.

Attached to the declaration was an affidavit of plaintiff’s claim which stated that the nature of its demand was for rent which became due, and interest thereon, under the provisions of the bond set up in the declaration; that the judgment in the forcible detainer action was affirmed by the Appellate Court February 27, 1928, and that Kaufman Hats, Inc., withheld possession of the premises described in the forcible detainer proceeding from May 1, 1926, to December 31, 1927; that Kaufman Hats, Inc., had failed to pay rent for the premises for the 20 months during which it withheld possession of the said premises, and that the reasonable rental value of the premises was $25,000. for 20 months, being at the rate of $1,250 a month; that plaintiff was entitled to the possession of the premises mentioned under a lease whereby it was required to pay and did pay to the lessor as rent therefor the sum of $1,250 a month on the first day of each and every month of said term of 20 months from May 1, 1926, to December 31, 1927, making a total sum of $25,000 paid as rent during said term of 20 months, which said sum was due plaintiff from the Royal Indemnity Company.

A special demurrer of defendant to the declaration was overruled and defendant filed certain pleas which asserted that the suit in forcible detainer was based upon a certain lease made to plaintiff by the trustees of the Leiter estate, demising the premises to plaintiff for a term of five years, beginning May 1,1926; that at the time' that suit was instituted Kaufman Hats, Inc., was in possession of the premises under a lease to Benjamin H. Kaufman from the trustees of the Leiter estate, demising the premises for a term of five years beginning May 1,1921, and ending April 30, 1926; that no contract or covenant, express or implied, other than the bond in the declaration mentioned, was ever made or "existed between plaintiff and. the Kaufman Hats, Inc., and that plaintiff was therefore not entitled to' recover from Kaufman Hats, Inc., any rent for the time, the possession of the premises was withheld. • ,

The pleas alleged that the plaintiff was a corporation organized for profit under the laws of the State of New Jersey and was not a banking, insurance, building and loan or surety company; that plaintiff’s claim for the possession of the premises mentioned was based upon a lease, etc.; that plaintiff, on October 19, 1925, and for a long time prior thereto had been engaged in the State of Illinois in the business of selling merchandise at retail and had not procured at any time prior thereto from the secretary of state of Illinois a certificate of authority to transact business or maintain an office in this State; that it had not filed a copy of its charter, duly authenticated, and had not filed any statement with the secretary of state in compliance, or attempted compliance, with the provisions of subsection 2 of section 81 of the General Corporation Act of Illinois, Cahill’s St. ch. 32, If 81, subsec. (2); that thereafter and until June 19, 1926, plaintiff continued to engage in the business of selling merchandise in the State without procuring from the secretary of state of Illinois a certificate of authority to transact business or maintain an office in this State and without filing a copy of its charter duly authenticated, without filing any statement with the secretary of state in compliance or attempted compliance with the statute, and that therefore plaintiff was not entitled to recover from Kaufman Hats, Inc., any rent for the time the possession of the premises was withheld from plaintiff.

Other similar pleas further averred that the action of forcible detainer was not a suit at law or in equity within the meaning of section .94 of the General Corporation Act, Cahill’s St. ch. 32, ff 94, whereby Kaufman Hats, Inc., was precluded from setting up as a defense in that suit the failure of plaintiff to secure a certificate of authority, to file a copy of its charter and to file any statement as required by subsection 2 of section 81 of the General Corporation Act, Cahill’s St. ch. 32, If 81, subsec. (2).

Defendant also filed pleas of nil debit and non damnificatus.

A demurrer to all these pleas was sustained, and defendant elected to abide by its pleas. Its default for want of plea and affidavit of merits was entered, and damages were assessed as heretofore stated, evidence being received as to the rental value of the premises.

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Bluebook (online)
259 Ill. App. 485, 1931 Ill. App. LEXIS 1345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/truly-warner-co-v-royal-indemnity-co-illappct-1931.