Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

48 Ill. App. 236

Howland v. White

Appellate Court of Illinois

Decided October 17, 1892

Appellate Court of Illinois · decided 1892-10-17

<p>1. Unmatured Rent Notes Surrendered i(,pon a Forfeiture of the Lease.—On the 27th day of March, 1889, Peter and Julius Keister, tenants in common of certain premises, joined in a lease to John P. White, by which Peter leased his half for one year and Julius his half for two years. In payment of the rent to Julius, White made and delivered eight promissory notes, each for §116.66, with Minerva White as security. The first note fell due March 27,1891, the next September 27, 1891, and the others ninety days apart thereafter. On April 20, 1889, Julius assigned the notes and lease to Johnson & Knight, who, seven days later assigned the lease and transferred the notes to S. W. Kinkaid. On or about June 1, 1891, Minerva White, the defendant, purchased the notes and lease of Kinkaid, who assigned the lease to her. On December 10 1889, White assigned the lease, which had been executed in duplicate, to Albert and John Howland, and they entered into possession of the premises. One of the notes given by White, with Minerva White as security, to Julius Keister, matured March 27,1891, and not being paid, Minerva White gave the Howlands notice of her ownership of the note and lease, demanded payment, and in default, declared the lease terminated and demanded possession of the undivided half of the premises, etc. Payment not being made, she began this action. The Howlands claimed that because Minerva White did not surrender and deliver to them all the rent notes held by her excepting the one on which the forfeiture was declared, according to a provision of the lease to that effect, her action was not sufficient to terminate the lease and create a forfeiture. It was held, that the clause of the lease did not expressly provide that all of the unmatured rent notes should be surrendered in case of a forfeiture; that the notes not having been given by the Howlands, they had no right to them, and were under no obligation to pay them if they were not delivered up.</p> <p>2. Security—Right to Purchase the Note.—A security on a note may lawfully purchase- the note, and as a holder, keep it alive as an indemnity against loss because of her suretyship.</p> <p>3. Forfeiture of a Lease for Non-Payment of Rent.—The common law rule that to create the forfeiture of a lease for the non-payment of rent, a demand for payment must be made upon the premises, is dispensed with by necessary implication arising from our statutes.</p> <p>4. Attornment.-—Hie enactment of Sec. 14, Chap. 80, R. S. (Starr & Curtis, 1497), dispenses with the necessity of an a-ttomment, and abrogates the rule announced in Fisher v. Deering, 60 Ill. 114.</p> <p>5. Assignment of Leases—Attornment.—All leases, except leases at will, may be assigned if there is no restriction in the lease itself, and the assignee of the lease is granted, by Sec. 14, Chap. 80, R. S., the same remedies, by action or otherwise, for the non-performance of any agreement in the lease for the recovery of rent or other cause of forfeiture, as the lessor might have had while the owner of the lease. Attornment is unnecessary to vest the assignee of a lease with the full rights of the assignor—the original lessor.</p>

Relies on Fisher v. Deering · Hough v. Cook County Land Co. · Allen v. Powell

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1892-10-17

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently February 1936

10 state decisions

3018921900191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Opinion of the Court, the

Hon. Carroll C. Boggs, Judge.

¶2It is first contended that the notice given by the appellee was not sufficient to terminate the lease and create a forfeiture. The grounds of such supposed deficiency are thus stated by counsel:

¶31. Because there is no demand of rent due upon the premises before declaring a forfeiture.

¶42. Because appellee did not turn over to appellants or offer to deliver up to them all rent notes held by her, except the one on which the forfeiture was declared, according to a provision of the lease to that effect.

¶5The paper served upon the appellant advised them that appellee was the owner and holder of a rent note more than two months past due and unpaid; declared the lease terminated and demanded immediate payment of the unpaid rent. Had the notice contained nothing further, it might have been regarded as an attempt to declare and enforce a forfeiture solely under the provisions of the lease and without regard to either the common law or statutory requirements concerning such forfeitures; but the notice proceeded to require the surrender of the premises, only in case appellants failed to pay the rent note within five days thereafter.

¶6When all that is contained in the notice is considered together, it is simply a demand for payment of rent, with a declaration of forfeiture and demand for possession if such payment is not made in five days, and is in compliance with Sec. 8, Chap. 80, B. S., which authorizes a forfeiture in such state of case.

¶7The common law rule that to create the forfeiture of a lease for non-payment of rent, a demand for payment must be made upon the premises, or some part thereof, is, we think, dispensed with by necessary implication arising from our statutes. Woodward v. Cone, 73 Ill. 24. It is true that in the case cited it is distinctly said that ten days’ notice to quit is essential to create a forfeiture. Such was the requirement of the statutes (1865) then in force, but this has been changed by the 8th section of Chap. 80 of our statutes now in force and governing this case. Only five days’ notice is now required if rent be due and unpaid.

¶8While it is true that the notice in the case at bar contains a demand for immediate payment, it is further true that the time fixed for such payment, to avoid the surrender of the premises, is placed at five days. This is sufficient mention of the time within which payment may be made under the statute. Farnam v. Holman, 90 Ill. 312.

¶9Nor do we think the second alleged ground of objection is well taken. The sixth clause of the lease does expressly provide that all of the unmatured rent notes shall be surrendered in case of a forfeiture.

¶10The unmatured notes are not, however, notes given by the appellants; upon the contrary, are notes executed by the appellee and J. B. White.

¶11We are unable to perceive any reason why the appellee should be called upon to surrender up these notes to the appellants.

¶12The appellants have no right to them; nor are they under any obligation to pay them if not delivered up. We think the appellee had the right to retain them, at least as against all persons other than J. R. White.

¶13It is urged that the appellee has no cause of action as holder of the notes because the notes were extinguished by the payment of them by her. The proof, we think, is that the appellee did not pay the notes but purchased them, and also the lease, as an indemnity against loss because of her suretyship for J. R. White.

¶14This she might lawfully do, and keep them alive and not discharged as by payment, though she, as surety, was one of the payors of the notes. Brandt on Suretyship, Sec. 371; Allen v. Powell, 108 Ill. 584.

¶15It is thought the appellee ought not to recover because the appellants had no notice of her claim for rent or of the assignment of the notes and lease to her at the time they paid the notes given by them to J. R. White for the rents.

¶16The appellants obtained whatever interest they have in the premises by a lease, in the body of which is fully set out the fact that these notes were given for rents specified in the lease and constituted the consideration thereof. There the notes are also fully described. The appellants stand charged with notice of all that is thus contained in that lease.

¶17Counsel upon one side argue that the appellee and J. R. White, her husband, are perpetrating a wrong upon the appellants which will, if this judgment is affirmed, result in forcing appellants to lose the amount paid by them upon the notes given by them to J. R. White upon the supposition that White had paid the notes mentioned in the lease, while counsel upon the other side argue that the appellants and J. R. White confederated together and are acting in concert in endeavoring to defeat the notes purchased and owned by her.

¶18The record is without evidence in support of either of these views, though one or the other is doubtless true. We are powerless to correct or prevent, by any ruling upon the points presented by the record, the consummation of the wrong that it is apparent has been or attempted to be perpetrated by one or the other of these parties to this cause.

¶19The parties respectively have chosen to prosecute and defend upon legal points, and though each cries fraud against the other, neither presents proof in support of the charge.

¶20A recovery, it is said, can not be upheld because there was no attornment to appellee by the appellants. We think that the enactment of Sec. 14, Chap. 80 R. S. (Starr & Curtis’ Statutes, 1497) dispensed with the necessity of an attornment and abrogated the rule announced in Fisher v. Deering, 60 Ill. 114.

¶21All leases except leases at will may be assigned if there is no restriction in the lease itself (12 Amer. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 1029), and the assignee of a lease is granted by the said Sec. 14 of Chap. 80, R. S., the same remedies, by action or otherwise, for the non-performance of any agreement in the lease for the recovery of rent or other cause of forfeiture, as the lessor might have had, while the owner of the lease or attornment must, we think, be hereafter deemed unnecessary to vest the assignee of a lease with the full rights of his assignor—the original lessor.

¶22The finding, ruling and judgment of the Circuit- Court are, we think, correct, and must be and are affirmed.

/48/illapp/236 · .json · Public domain