Knowlton v. Hanbury

Citations

• 117 Ill. 471
• 5 N.E. 581

Syllabus

<p>1. Chancery—evidence in support of bill, after a confession of plea in bar. Where a plea of a former adjudication is tiled in bar to a cross-bill, and the complainant in the cross-bill fails -to reply thereto, and thereby admits the truth of the facts set up in the plea, the only question on the cause being set for hearing on the plea is its sufficiency, and evidence offered in support of the cross-bill is properly excluded as irrelevant.</p> <p>2. Former adjudication—effect of dismissal of bill in chancery—as a bar to a second suit. A former decree in a suit in equity between the same parties and for the same subject matter, is a good defence to a second bill in equity, even though it be a decree merely dismissing the bill, if the dismissal is not expressed to be without prejudice.</p> <p>3. A, having the legal title to property in Chicago, which really belonged to B, his sister, a resident of Massachusetts, exchanged the same with C for twenty-seven vacant lots in a village in Massachusetts, and deeds were made accordingly. The Chicago property was conveyed, subject to a deed of trust thereon, for $1800, A agreeing to pay the interest on the incumbrance up to a certain date. B filed a bill in the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Illinois, against C, making A and others, parties, seeking to set aside the exchange of property on the ground of fraudulent representations in respect 'to the character, location and value of the village lots, which, on the hearing, was dismissed. C afterward filed his bill in the State court, to enjoin a sale of the Chicago property, making the trustee, and A and B, parties. A filed a cross-bill seeking a rescission of the contract of exchange on the same grounds of fraud, to which C pleaded the former decree in the Federal court in bar: Held, that the decree of dismissal in the Federal court was a bar to the relief sought in the cross-bill.</p>