Ingalls v. Rowell

Citations

• 149 Ill. 163
• 36 N.E. 1016

Syllabus

<p>1. Sale at auction—set aside for prevention of competition by purchaser. Where a person desirous of purchasing property at auction, prevents others, by improper conduct, from bidding against him, and thus succeeds in purchasing the property at less than its fair market value, the sale will be set aside. So, agreements not to bid at a public auction are in general void, as against public policy, and as tending to fraud, and such agreements, at least when brought about or participated in by the purchaser, will vitiate the sale.</p> <p>2. Judicial sale—prevention of competition vitiates sale. The greatest fairness is required of those intrusted by law to conduct judicial sales and of those who purchase at such sales, and any contract, agreement or arrangement entered into on the part of the bidders, calculated to stifle competition at the sale, is contrary to public policy, a fraud upon the law, and will vitiate the sale.</p> <p>3. At an administrator’s sale of land to pay debts, and during the bidding, two of the bidders, A and B, agreed that if either became the purchaser the other should have the option to take the land on paying the purchaser $200, so that they ceased to be competing bidders, and A induced another person to refrain from further bidding by an agreement to convey a part of the premises to him at the same price the whole land sold for, and induced others not to bid against him, and it appeared that the land sold for less than its fair market value, and A and B became the purchasers, but had the deed made to A on payment of $200 by the latter: Held, that the fraud in the prevention of competition at the sale vitiated the deed made to A.</p> <p>4. Such a case is distinguishable from one where several persons desiring to obtain distinct portions of a tract about to be sold at auction, agree that one of their number shall bid for the benefit of all, and in case he succeeds in making the purchase shall divide the land according to their agreement, and a