G.S. Johnson Co. v. Beloosky

• Decision Date: 03 June 1914
• Docket Number: No. 9377.,9377.
• Citation: 263 Ill. 363,105 N.E. 287
• Parties: G. S. JOHNSON CO. v. BELOOSKY.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

263 Ill. 363

105 N.E. 287

G. S. JOHNSON CO.

v.BELOOSKY.

No. 9377.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

April 23, 1914.

Rehearing Denied June 3, 1914.

Appeal from Rock Island County Court; Benjamin I. Bell, Judge.

Action by the G. S. Johnson Company against Rossie Beloosky. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Albert Huber, of Rock Island, and Blum, Wolfsohn & Blum, of Chicago (Henry S. Blum, of Chicago, of counsel), for appellant.

McEniry & McEniry, of Moline (M. J. McEniry, of Moline, of counsel), for appellee.

VICKERS, J.

Ernest Pilatt was engaged in the bakery business, and used in connection therewith a delivery wagon and a team of horses. He made a bill of sale covering his entire stock in trade, store fixtures, and the wagon and team used in connection with the business to Rossie Beloosky. Subsequently the G. S. Johnson Company, being a creditor of Pilatt, levied an attachment upon the goods and chattels sold to appellee, basing the attachment upon the failure to comply with an act of the Legislature known as the Bulk Sales Act of 1913. It is admitted that no attempt was made to comply with the act in making the sale. The sole question presented for our determination is the constitutionality of the Bulk Sales Act of 1913. The court below held the act to be invalid and gave judgment for the defendant.The plaintiff in the attachment proceeding has prosecuted an appeal direct to this court.

[1] The Bulk Sales Act passed in 1913 is entitled ‘An act to regulate the sale or transfer of goods, wares, merchandise, and other chattels in bulk and to provide certain penalties in connection therewith.’ The act, which is found at page 258 in the Laws of 1913, is as follows:

‘Sec. 1. That the sale, transfer, or assignment in bulk of the major part of the whole of a stock of merchandise, or merchandise and fixtures or other goods and chattels of the vendor's business, otherwise than in the ordinary course of trade and in the regular and usual prosecution of the vendor's business shall be fraudulent and void as against the creditors of the said vendor, unless the said vendee shall, in good faith, at least five (5) days before the consummation of such sale, transfer or assignment demand and receive from the vendor a written statement under oath of the vendor or a duly authorized agent of the vendor having knowledge of the facts, containing a full, accurate and complete list of the creditors of the vendor, their addresses and the amounts owing to each as near as may be ascertained and if there be no creditors a written statement under oath to that effect; and unless the said vendee shall at least five days before taking possession of said goods and chattels and at least five days before the payment or delivery of the purchase price, or consideration of any evidence of indebtedness therefor, in good faith, deliver or cause to be delivered or send or cause to be sent personally or by registered letter properly stamped, directed and addressed, a notice in writing to each of the creditors of the vendor named in the said statement or of whom the said vendee shall have knowledge, of the proposed purchase by him of the said goods and chattels and of the price, terms and conditions of such sale: Provided, however, that it shall be lawful for the vendee to pay to the vendor so much of the purchase price as shall be in excess of the total amount of the indebtedness of the vendor, before the expiration of the five days herein above referred to.

‘Sec. 2. Any vendor of all or the major portion of a stock of merchandise or merchandise and fixtures or other goods and chattels of the vendor's business, in bulk, otherwise than in the ordinary course of trade and in the regular and usual prosecution of the vendor's business or any person for or on behalf of such vendor who shall knowingly or willfully make or deliver or cause to be made or delivered any false statement or any statement which in any material portion is false or shall knowingly or willfully fail to include the names of all the creditors of said vendor in said statement, as provided for in section 1, of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment for not more than one (1) year or both in the discretion of the court.

‘Sec. 3. Vendors and vendees under this act shall include corporations, associations, copartnerships and individuals, who shall be party to any sale, transfer or assignment, of goods and chattels in bulk. But nothing contained in this act shall apply to sales by executors, administrators, receivers, trustees in bankruptcy or by any public officer under judicial process nor to sales of exempt property or any sale or...