{
  "id": 2997164,
  "name": "J. M. Hoyt, C. B. Little and L. A. Stebbins, Trustees, Plaintiffs in Error, v. William P. Morris and J. H. Brumsey, Defendants in Error",
  "name_abbreviation": "Hoyt v. Morris",
  "decision_date": "1920-01-12",
  "docket_number": "Gen. No. 25,259",
  "first_page": "321",
  "last_page": "323",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "216 Ill. App. 321"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
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    "ocr_confidence": 0.49,
    "pagerank": {
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    "sha256": "263edf0fb4d7513efd91ccb21365d14708d8cbea0dca3b002b11f208e11937fe",
    "simhash": "1:552ae7a4980ebaf8",
    "word_count": 923
  },
  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T20:03:51.229139+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "J. M. Hoyt, C. B. Little and L. A. Stebbins, Trustees, Plaintiffs in Error, v. William P. Morris and J. H. Brumsey, Defendants in Error."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Presiding Justice McSurely\ndelivered the opinion of the court.\nBy this writ of error the plaintiffs seek the reversal of an order of the trial court vacating a judgment in their favor for $10,232.50, confessed under a warrant of attorney, on a. note made by the defendants.\nOn October 29, 1918, the plaintiffs filed their statement of claim and cognovit, and judgment was confessed as above stated. Thereafter, on November 25, defendants moved the court to vacate the judgment and supported their motion by affidavits which recited that a judgment had previously been entered upon the same note on October 14, 1916, in the Circuit Court of Marshall county, Illinois, and subsequently on October 25,1918, on motion of defendants, an order was entered by said Circuit Court of Marshall county vacating and setting aside said judgment and dismissing the cause. This affidavit was supported by a transcript of said proceedings. The affidavits further asserted that defendants did not subsequent to October 14, 1918, authorize any attorney to appear for them and confess judgment; and it was averred that the power and authority conferred under the warrant of attorney' in the note, having been once exercised by the entering of the judgment in Marshall county, had' become exhausted and that no other or further judgment could be entered upon said note by virtue of said warrant of attorney. The trial court was in accord with this claim \u2018and vacated the judgment and dismissed the cause for want of prosecution.\nWe hold that in so doing thejbrial court was in error. The warrant of attorney was authority to confess a valid judgment. When the judgment which was attempted was vacated as invalid, the warrant had not functioned but retained its original potency. It clearly could not have exhausted its authority by an attempt which was a nullity. The purpose of the warrant of attorney must have been served before it could be said to be exhausted by its exercise. A similar point was concisely disposed of by the Supreme Court of Iowa in Huner v. Doolittle, vol. 3 (Greene) 76, where the court said:\n\u201cA decree had been confessed in the same case at a previous term of the court. It is therefore contended that the first act of confession exhausted the authority of the attorney to confess under that power. This would be true if the first decree had been valid or remained unreversed. But it appears that it was taken to the Supreme Court and reversed. This placed the ease and the rights of the parties the same as if the first decree had not been rendered. The intention of the power had not be'en carried out, consequently the object was not accomplished, and the authority was not exhausted by the first act. \u201d\nTo the same effect was the holding in Guyer\u2019s Adm\u2019r v. Guyer, 6 Houst. (Del.) 430, and Fairchild v. Camac, vol. 8 Fed. Cas. p. 953. In 30 American and English Encyclopedia of Law, 118, it is said:\n\u201cA warrant -which authorizes the attorney to confess a judgment or judgments, authorizes a second judgment only where the first one is imperfect and not where a valid and subsisting judgment has previously been confessed on the wurrant. But where a judgment entered under the warrant has been set aside by reason of the death of the grantee, this does not prevent a second judgment being entered up thereon in the name of the administrator.\u201d\nWe approve of what is said in these cases as being founded upon reason and justice.\nOpposed to what is above held, counsel for defendants present a brief remarkable for its display of great industry. Unfortunately it does not give that assistance to the court which should be the object of every /brief. Strained language and superfluous words only ' tend to conceal the matters of substance in which alone the court is interested. Brevity and clarity mark the effective brief.\nFor the reasons above given, the judgment of the Municipal Court is reversed and the cause is remanded.\nReversed and remanded.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Presiding Justice McSurely"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Eugene L. Garey and A. J. Deutschman, for plaintiffs in error.",
      "Moses, Rosenthal & Kennedy, for defendants in error; Hamilton Moses and Henry Jackson Darby, of counsel."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "J. M. Hoyt, C. B. Little and L. A. Stebbins, Trustees, Plaintiffs in Error, v. William P. Morris and J. H. Brumsey, Defendants in Error.\nGen. No. 25,259.\n1. Bills and notes, \u00a7 468 \u2014when warrant of attorney to confess judgment is not exhausted. A warrant of attorney which authorizes confession of a judgment is not exhausted where a judgment is entered under the warrant on a note and such judgment is vacated and set aside as invalid, as the purpose of the warrant must have been served before it can be said to be exhausted, and when the first attempt to enter judgment is a nullity, the warrant retains its original potency.\n2. Appeal and error, \u00a7 1094*\u2014what should he character of brief. A brief filed on an appeal of a case should be brief and clear so that it may assist the court in determining the questions presented; strained language and superfluous words tending to conceal the matters of substance should be avoided.\nError to the Municipal Court of Chicago; the Hon. Wells M. Cook, Judge, presiding. Heard in this court at the October term, 1919.\nReversed and remanded.\nOpinion filed January 12, 1920.\nRehearing denied January 26, 1920.\nEugene L. Garey and A. J. Deutschman, for plaintiffs in error.\nMoses, Rosenthal & Kennedy, for defendants in error; Hamilton Moses and Henry Jackson Darby, of counsel.\nSee Illinois Notes Digest, Yols, XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number."
  },
  "file_name": "0321-01",
  "first_page_order": 387,
  "last_page_order": 389
}