Miller v. Doran

• Decision Date: 09 June 1910
• Citation: 245 Ill. 200,91 N.E. 1039
• Parties: MILLER et al. v. DORAN et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

245 Ill. 200

91 N.E. 1039

MILLER et al.

v.DORAN et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

April 21, 1910.

Rehearing Denied June 9, 1910.

Appeal from Appellate Court, First District, on Appeal from Circuit Court, Cook County; Lockwood Honore, Judge.

Bill by Lanson D. Miller and another against Birdie Doran, the United States Steel Corporation, and the Hudson Trust Company. A decree in favor of defendant Doran against complainants, and dismissing her cross-bill as to her codefendants, was affirmed as to complainants and reversed as to the codefendants (124 Ill. App. 551), and defendants Steel Corporation and Trust Company appeal. Affirmed.

Knapp & Campbell and William Beye, for appellants.

T. F. Laramie and Wolff & Rothschild, for appellees.

HAND, J.

This was a bill in chancery, filed in the circuit court of Cook county by Lanson D. Miller and Louis G. Bostedo, doing business as L. D. Miller & Co., against Birdie Doran, the United States Steel Corporation, and the Hudson Trust Company, which were nonresident corporations, with their principal offices in the city of New York (hereinafter called ‘the corporations'), to determine the ownership of certain shares of stock of the United States Steel Corporation, claimed by L. D. Miller & Co. and Birdie Doran respectively, and to have the same transferred upon the stock books of the United States Steel Corporation to L. D. Miller & Co. Answers and replications were filed, and Birdie Doran filed a cross-bill, asking that said stock be declared to be her property and delivered to her by the corporations, in whose hands it had been placed for transfer upon the stock books of the United States Steel Corporation by L. D. Miller & Co. An answer and replication were filed to the cross-bill, and a trial was had and a decree was entered holding that L. D. Miller & Co. were the owners of said shares of stock and entitled to have said shares of stock transferred to said firm upon the stock books of the United States Steel Corporation, and the said corporations were ordered and directed to make such transfer. Birdie Doran prosecuted an appeal to the Appellate Court for the First district (Doran v. Miller, 124 Ill. App. 551), where the decree of the circuit court was reversed and the cause was remanded to the circuit court. Upon a second trial the circuit court entered a decree finding the stock was the property of Birdie Doran, and directed L. D. Miller & Co. to deliver the stock to her or to pay her its value, and dismissed the cross-bill as to the corporations so far as it was sought to hold said corporations liable for the value of said stock. The Appellate Court for the First district has affirmed the last decree as to L. D. Miller & Co. and reversed it as to the corporations, and directed the trial court to enter a decree against said corporations, as well as L. D. Miller & Co., that they deliver to Birdie Doran an equivalent amount of stock or pay to her the value thereof, and the corporations have prosecuted an appeal to this court.

It appears from the evidence that Birdie Doran was the owner of certain shares of stock in the United States Steel Corporation; that she assigned the same in blank and placed them in a box in a safety deposit vault in the city of Chicago to which she and her husband had access; that her husband, without her knowledge or consent, took the same from the box in the safety deposit vault and hypothecated the same with L. D. Miller & Co. to margin certain stock deals which he had with L. D. Miller & Co.; that L. D. Miller & Co., claiming to be the owners of said stock, sent said stock to the Hudson Trust Company, the transfer agent of the United States Steel Corporation; that Birdie Doran notified said corporations she was the owner of said stock and asked that it be not transferred upon the stock books of the United States Steel Corporation; that thereupon said L. D. Miller & Co. filed the original bill in this case against Birdie Doran and the corporations, and sought thereby to have it declared that said firm was the owner of said stock and to have the same transferred to said firm upon the stock books of the United States Steel Corporation. It also appears that Birdie Doran prayed an appeal from the first decree entered by the circuit court, but an appeal was not perfected by her; that prior to the time she sued out a writ of error to review said decree, L. D. Miller & Co. sought to have the corporations transfer the said stock to said firm upon the stock books of the United States Steel Corporation and to turn over to said firm said shares of stock in accordance with the provisions of said decree, which the corporations refused to do; that thereupon Louis G. Bostedo sued out a writ of replevin in the city of Chicago and through such writ obtained possession of the said shares of stock, which shares of stock had been returned to Chicago; that thereupon he forwarded said shares of stock to the corporations in New York, and the same were transferred upon the books of the United States Steel...