Citations
- 93 Ill. App. 112
Full opinion text
Hr. Justice Windes
delivered the opinion of the court.
Appellee begun replevin in' the Circuit- Court to recover the possession of ten bonds of the Covington Light & Water Co. of the par value of $1,000, which were in the possession of appellant. The declaration consists of one count only, for the detention of the bonds, and the pleas are, first, that the defendant did not detain the bonds, and second, that it held the bonds in pledge as a security for the payment of $1,800 due to it from William S. Beed and Jacob Adler, on which issue was taken by the plaintiff. A trial before the court and a jury resulted in a verdict finding the defendant guilty, property in plaintiff, and assessing plaintiff’s damages at §750, on which the court rendered judgment, from which this appeal is taken.
Twenty different contentions are made by counsel for appellee, nearly all of which are of a technical nature, by reason of which it is claimed that the judgment should be affirmed. With very few exceptions counsel has not referred to any page of the abstract or record in support of his contentions, and the court, in order to pass upon them, has been compelled to search the record. This labor should have been performed by counsel and the proper references to the record or abstract made in his brief. We can not notice these contentions in detail. Their general character is fairly shown by the second, viz., that the bill of exceptions is not sealed bj-- the trial judge, in support of which nine authorities are cited. The record shows that the bill of exceptions is sealed by the trial judge. Many others of these contentions are as completely answered by an inspection of the record, and it seems sufficient to say that we have examined all of them and are of opinion that they are not tenable. The only one of the contentions of appellee which has any support from the record is the nineteenth, that the claim of appellant that the bonds in question were payable to bearer, can not be considered for the reason that the bonds are not set forth in the bill of exceptions. The record shows that the ten bonds in question were offered in evidence by counsel for the plaintiff, and that “ said bonds are in the words and figures following; description of ten bonds numbered, respectively, as follows.” Here is given the numbers of the bonds, respectively, and what purports to be the language of the bond of the first number given in full, including a coupon and their numbers and amount, with the certificate of the trustee indorsed on the bond. This bond is payable to bearer, and we think from the language above quoted it is plain that all the bonds were alike. If, however, there could be doubt upon that question, it is removed by reading appellee’s brief describing the bonds in question.
Among other instructions given for the plaintiff 'are the following, viz:
4. “ If you believe from the evidence that the defendant, James B. Clow & Sons, was holding the bonds in controversy as collateral security to the account of the Covington Light & Water Company, and to secure this account only, and that one W. S. Beed afterward stated to the defendant that it might hold the said bonds to secure his own private account, or that of Beed & Adler, still the defendant would have no right to hold the bonds as collateral to such account of Beed or Beed