Waishwell v. Doberstein

20 N.E.2d 984, 300 Ill. App. 341, 1939 Ill. App. LEXIS 810
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 2, 1939
DocketGen. No. 40,647
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 20 N.E.2d 984 (Waishwell v. Doberstein) 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
Waishwell v. Doberstein, 20 N.E.2d 984, 300 Ill. App. 341, 1939 Ill. App. LEXIS 810 (Ill. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

Mr. Justice John J. Sullivan

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a foreclosure suit in which the defendants appealed directly to the Supreme Court from a decree of the circuit court in favor of plaintiff. That court transferred the appeal to this court, holding that no freehold is involved where the only question on appeal is the priority of the lien of a trust deed, the validity of which has been finally determined, over the lien of a judgment arising out of an award under the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

Plaintiff, Walter Waishwell, filed a complaint to foreclose a trust deed as a first lien on the premises involved. The answer and counterclaim of Matilda Yoelin, as administratrix of the estate of Michael Gorski, deceased, and the answer of James G. Barsaloux, as the receiver appointed in another proceeding* instituted by Gorski in his lifetime, by the filing of a complaint in the nature of a creditor’s bill, seek to establish an award by the industrial commission to said Gorski as a paramount lien on the same premises. No question arises on the pleadings.

For a clearer understanding of the issues it is necessary to state the facts somewhat fully. Michael Gorski sustained injuries while working as an employee of John Kudla on a building at 2459 South Whipple street, Chicago, which is not the property involved in this suit. May 16, 1924, the industrial commission made an award in favor of Gorski against John Kudla, of which a certified copy was recorded August 14,1924.

September 1, 1924, plaintiff, Walter Waishwell, leased the premises involved in this foredlosure proceeding to Rozalia Kudla, wife of John Kudla, for a period of five years for a rental of $5,040, payable in monthly instalments. This lease contained an option entitling Eozalia Kudla to purchase the premises on or before September 1, 1925, for $14,000, of which $5,000 was to be paid in cash and a first mortgage given for the balance of $9,000, payable in five years with interest at 6 per cent. The option to purchase expired, but on September 28, 1925., Rozalia Kudla entered into a real estate contract to purchase the leased premises from Waishwell on the terms stated in the lease. Thereafter the parties met and Waishwell delivered his warranty deed conveying the leased premises to Rozalia Kudla and simultaneously received in consideration thereof $5,000 in cash and a first mortgage on said premises for $9,000, in accordance with the terms of the real estate sales contract. The warranty deed executed by Waishwell and the trust deed in the nature of a mortgage executed by the Kudlas were both acknowledged December 1, 1925, before the same notary and were both recorded simultaneously on February 2, 1926. The trust deed contains below the description of the premises the recital: “The notes mentioned in the within Trust Deed have been given in part purchase of the aforesaid property.”

On April 13, 1927, Waishwell sold the mortgage to Frank Lapinski and agreed to guarantee the payment of said mortgage, as well as to repurchase same if the principal and interest provided for therein were not paid at maturity. On December 4, 1930, and again in 1933, the maturity date of the mortgage was extended by the then holder of same and the Kudlas by written agreement, to which Waishwell was not a party. The principal and interest on the mortgage not having been paid at maturity, Waishwell repurchased same from Lapinski May 12, 1937, and commenced this proceeding to foreclose the lien of the trust deed on May 21, 1937.

Theretofore, on December 16, 1930, Grorski filed a complaint in the nature of a creditor’s bill (Gorski v. Kudla, circuit court case No. B-211606) to enforce payment of his compensation award against John Kudla out of the mortgaged property involved here and other property, all of which he asserted belonged to John Kudla, although the legal title thereto was in Rozalia Kudla. Giorski made Helen Doberstein, the trustee named in the trust deed given to secure the purchase money indebtedness to Waishwell a party defendant, and attempted to establish in the creditor’s suit that the mortgage to Waishwell was not a valid lien and to have it canceled and removed as a cloud upon the title to the property. While the creditor’s suit was pending Grorski died and Matilda Toelin, his administratrix with the will annexed, was substituted as plaintiff therein. John Kudla died March 13, 1934. July 9, 1935, a decree was entered in the creditor’s suit which ordered the Waishwell mortgage canceled and removed as a cloud on the title to the premises here involved and which further ordered a sale of this property, as well as other real estate, to satisfy the award.

An appeal was taken to this court from the decree entered in the creditor’s suit, which decree was affirmed in so far as it ordered the sale of the properties but reversed as to that portion thereof which ordered the cancelation of the Waishwell mortgage. [Yoelin v. Kudla, 287 Ill. App. 618 (Abst.).] Relative to the trust deed before us here, we held in that case as follows:

“As to the finding of the decree that the trust deed from John Kudla and his wife, Rozalia Kudla, to Helen Doberstein, as trustee, was executed without consideration and as part of the scheme of the Kudlas ‘to avoid paying compensation to Michael Groski,’ we think that the chancellor was clearly in error. When the property at 3856-58 Kedzie was purchased from Waishwell in the name of Rozalia Kudla on November 23, 1925 for $14,000, $5,000 was paid in cash and the balance of $9,000 by the execution of a purchase money mortgage in that amount secured by the trust deed to Helen Doberstein. There is not a scintilla of evidence in the record that Helen Doberstein ever had any interest in this $9,000 mortgage indebtedness except as trustee, but the record does show that Waishwell, from whom this property was purchased, took back this mortgage as part payment of the purchase price and later sold it to one Rybinski [Lapinski] for $9,000. The trust deed to Helen Doberstein securing the $9,000 indebtedness against the property is a valid lien upon same and John Kudla and Rozalia Kudla never at any time had any right, title or interest in or to the said trust deed or the principal note secured thereby. That portion of the decree setting aside and canceling this trust deed and removing it ‘as a cloud from the title ’ to the property in question must, therefore, be reversed.”

Our judgment in the foregoing appeal holding that the trust deed under foreclosure in the instant case is a valid purchase money mortgage lien has not been reversed, and remains in full force and effect. The mandate of the Appellate Court issued pursuant to said judgment.

In the case at bar the master reported and the chancellor found and decreed that the mortgage in question is a first and paramount lien upon the premises for $6,382.59 and interest and costs, and ordered the premises sold to satisfy said indebtedness. Both Matilda Toelin, administratrix with the will annexed of the estate of Michael Gorski, deceased, and James G. Barsaloux, receiver in circuit court case No. B-211606, prosecute this appeal to reverse the decree of foreclosure and sale.

This court in the appeal in the creditor’s proceeding-having held that the Waishwell mortgage was a purchase money mortgage and a valid lien upon the property sold by Waishwell to Rozalia Kudla, and the Supreme Court in Waishwell v. Doberstein, 370 Ill.

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Related

Yoelin v. Kudla
24 N.E.2d 67 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1939)

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Bluebook (online)
20 N.E.2d 984, 300 Ill. App. 341, 1939 Ill. App. LEXIS 810, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waishwell-v-doberstein-illappct-1939.