Hoodless v. Reed

• Decision Date: 22 January 1885
• Citation: 1 N.E. 118,112 Ill. 105
• Parties: HOODLESS v. REED and others.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

112 Ill. 105

1 N.E. 118

HOODLESS

v.REED and others.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Filed January 22, 1885.

Writ of error to circuit court, Cook county.

Edward Roby, for plaintiff in error.

Frank J. Crawford, for defendants in error.

SCOTT, J.

The facts out of which the questions of law discussed arise, are so few and simple that no controversy exists as to them. On the thirty-first day of October, 1876, complainant borrowed of defendants Reed, Murdock, and Fischer the sum of $7,000, for the period of five years from that date, for which she agreed to pay them interest thereon at the rate of 8 per cent. per annum. As evidence of such loan and indebtedness complainant executed and delivered her promissory note to Reed, Murdock, and Fischer, bearing date October 18, 1876, and payable five years after date, for the sum of $7,000, with interest thereon at the rate of 8 per cent. per annum, payable half-yearly, viz., on the thirtieth day of April and the thirty-first day of October in each year, until the principal sum should be fully paid. The several installments of interest to become due during the period of five years were further evidenced by 10 interest notes or coupons, of even date with the principal note, and were attached thereto as coupons are usually attached. Each coupon was for one-half year's interest on the sum borrowed, as provided in the principal note, and each, like the principal, was to bear interest after maturity at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum. To secure the principal sum borrowed, with the interest thereon, complainant executed and delivered to L. C. Payne Freer a mortgage or trust deed on the premises in controversy, which mortgage or trust deed contained the usual power of sale, and further provided that in case default should be made in the payment of any or either of the notes or coupons therein mentioned, whether for principal or interst, on the day on which the same, or either thereof, should become due and payable, ‘then all and each of the moneys secured to be paid by this indenture shall, upon any such default, become immediately due and payable, anything herein contained, or in said promissory notes contained, to the contrary notwithstanding.’Afterwards default was made in the payment of the installments of interest that fell due October 31, 1878, and April 30, 1879, (being $280 each,) and also in the payment of $28, part of the installment which fell due April 30, 1878. The trustee named in the deed, at the instance and request of the legal owners and holders of such indebtedness, after having advertised the premises in accordance with the terms of the trust deed, did, on the first day of July, 1879, sell the premises to Simon Reed, he being the highest bidder therefor, and made him a trustee's deed for the same, in the usual form. Reed, the purchaser of the property at the trustee's sale, was one of the owners of the indebtedness secured, and no doubt his purchase was made for the benefit of all the parties interested.

A very great number of objections have been taken, both by the bill and on the argument, to the validity of the trustee's sale, and to the title defendants acquired thereunder. Preliminary to the brief discussion that is to follow, it is proper to say that every objection taken to the validity of the trustee's sale and deed has been fully considered, and while it is not deemed necessary to remark seriatim on them, they nevertheless have all been fully considered, and the conclusion reached is in harmony with the decision of the circuit court that complainant is not entitled to the relief asked by her bill. As the insistance of counsel is understood, the taking of separate notes or coupons for the interest on the principal sum borrowed, was payment of the interest on the $7,000 note for the full period of five years it had to run. The argument proceeds on the hypothesis the interest notes or coupons attached to the principal note are negotiable as other commercial paper, and that the payees might assign them separately from the principal note, and the taking of such notes in some way operated as payment of the...