Lester v. Berkowitz

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: SCOTT
• Citation: Lester v. Berkowitz, 125 Ill. 307, 17 N.E. 706 (Ill. 1888)
• Decision Date: 16 June 1888
• Parties: LESTER et al. v. BERKOWITZ.

125 Ill. 307

17 N.E. 706

LESTER et al.

v.BERKOWITZ.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 16, 1888.

Error to circuit court, Cook county; R. S. TUTHILL, Judge.

Assumpsit by Samuel Berkowitz against John T. Lester, Roswell A. Peters, and Edward W. Bangs, trading as John T. Lester & Co., to recover profits on purchase and sale of certain stocks through defendants as brokers. From an order requiring defendants to produce in court and place in possession of the clerk certain books and papers for the inspection of plaintiff and his counsel, defendants bring error.

John S. Cook and John N. Jewett, for plaintiffs in error.

Thomas J. Sutherland, for defendant in error.

SCOTT, J.

The motion made by defendant to dismiss the writ of error in this case must be allowed to prevail. The order of the circuit court upon which error is assigned is not final in the sense that an appeal may be taken from it, or writ of error may be sued out to review it. It is simply an interlocutory order, made by the court in the progress of a suit at law, and is in no sense definitive, as that term is used in the law. It is an order made, under power thought to be conferred by the statute, upon defendants to place certain books, in which the business transactions of defendants with plaintiff and other persons are recorded, in the possession of the clerk of the court, that they may be inspected by plaintiff and his attorney, in order that they might prepare for the trial of the cause. It was the privilege of defendants...