Pickering v. Cease

Decision Date30 September 1875
Citation1875 WL 8628,79 Ill. 328
PartiesAQUILLA H. PICKERING et al.v.HENRY CEASE.
CourtIllinois Supreme Court

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Cook county; the Hon. JOSEPH E. GARY, Judge, presiding.

Messrs. WILKINSON, SACKETT & BEAN, for the appellants.

Messrs. MCCAGG & CULVER, for the appellee. Mr. CHIEF JUSTICE SCOTT delivered the opinion of the Court:

This controversy arises out of grain transactions between the parties, about which there does not seem to be any serious misunderstanding, except as to two “optional deals” in corn, one for 10,000 bushels, for delivery in August, and another for a like amount, for delivery in September. An amount was admitted to be due on former transactions, for which the court rendered judgment in favor of plaintiffs and against defendant Cease, who was the only defendant served with process. Plaintiffs claimed that a larger sum was due on the previous transactions, but the amount was not considerable, and probably the sum found by the court is nearly, if not entirely, correct. That, however, is not the matter in dispute. It has relation only to the last two transactions in corn, and it is in regard to those items that plaintiffs bring the case to this court on appeal.

Upon the theory, plaintiffs made purchases for defendants, of corn, for August and September delivery, still, in view of the evidence, the judgment is quite as large as it ought to be. Had plaintiffs sold the corn at the highest market price after the alleged purchases, there would have been but little, if any, loss sustained. Whether they were directed so to do by defendants, was a question of fact to be found by the court to whom the cause was submitted. On this question, the testimony was flatly contradictory. If the court adopted the theory of defendants, the judgment is warranted by the evidence. Clearly it was the province of the court to determine which was the better evidence on that question, and we see no reason to be dissatisfied with the conclusion reached.

But there is another consideration that is fatal to a recovery in any event, so far as the two last deals are concerned. There is no sufficient evidence that any grain was, in fact, bought for defendants for delivery in August or September. So far as anything is proven, the alleged purchases are purely fictitious. The grain plaintiffs bought of Hutchinson was immediately sold back to him. It was not paid for, nor was it expected by the parties it...

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38 cases
  • Ascher v. Edward Moyse & Co.
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • January 29, 1912
    ... ... 878; Scales v. State, 81 ... S.W. 949; Pearce v. Rice, 142 U.S. 28, 40, 35 L.Ed ... 925, 930, 12 S.Ct. 130, 135; Pickering v. Cease, 79 ... Ill. 328, 330; Cothran v. Ellis, 125 Ill. 496, 16 ... N.E. 646; Richardson v. Shaw, 209 U.S. 365, 52 L.Ed ... 835; Holcomb ... ...
  • Morrissey v. Broomal
    • United States
    • Nebraska Supreme Court
    • October 4, 1893
    ... ... gambling contracts, and are illegal and void. ( Rudolph v ... Winters, 7 Neb. 126; Pickering v. Cease, 79 ... Ill. 328; Embrey v. Jennison, 131 U.S. 336; Mohr ... v. Meisen, 49 N.W. 862 [Minn.]; Irwin v ... Williar, 110 U.S. 499; ... ...
  • Anderson v. State
    • United States
    • Georgia Court of Appeals
    • May 16, 1907
    ...policy.' We recognize this ruling to be sound, and we adopt the same. This was also ruled by the Supreme Court of Illinois. Pickering v. Cease, 79 Ill. 328. in Wisconsin. Everingham v. Meighan, 55 Wis. 354, 13 N.W. 269; Barnard v. Backhaus, 52 Wis. 593, 6 N.W. 252, 9 N.W. 595; Lyon v. Culbe......
  • Buckingham v. Fitch
    • United States
    • Missouri Court of Appeals
    • May 25, 1885
    ...is void as a gambling contract. Lyon v. Culbertson, 83 Ill. 33; Logan v. Musick, 81 Ill. 415; Pixley v. Boynton, 79 Ill. 351; Pickering v. Cease, 79 Ill. 328; Tenny v. Foote, 4 Bradw. 594; Beveridge v. Hewitt, 8 Bradw. 467; Colderwood v. McRea, 11 Bradw. 543; Corbitt v. Underwood, 83 Ill. 3......
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