Little v. Dyer

Citations

• 138 Ill. 272
• 27 N.E. 905

Syllabus

<p>1. Judgment by confession—amount due determined dehors the written obligation—judgment coram non judice. A lease for three years provided for the payment of $36,000 rent, payable in sums of $300 at stated times, and that all water rates, gas bills, and cost of keeping the premises in a clean and healthy condition, should be additional rent, and contained a warrant of attorney to waive process and service thereof,and to confess judgment from time to time for any rent which might be then due by the terms of the lease, with costs, etc. Under this power the attorney, in term time, confessed a judgment against the lessees for $6772 : Held, that the warrant of attorney attempted to authorize a proceeding unknown to the common law, and not contemplated by the statute, and that the judgment of the court based on such warrant of attorney was coram non judice, and void.</p> <p>2. Where a lease provides for the payment of the rent in sums of $300, maturing from time to time, and that all amounts paid by the lessor for water rates, gas bills', and for keeping the premises in a clean and healthy condition, shall be so much additional rent, and due and payable as such, etc., a judicial investigation and hearing of evidence other than that afforded by the lease itself is necessary to determine the rent due by the terms of the lease. In such case there can be no confession of judgment for rent due, under a power in the lease to confess judgment from time to time for any rent that may then be due under the lease.</p> <p>3. A power of attorney for the confession of a judgment for the sum due is not authorized by the statute nor at common law in a case where the amount of the judgment is not fixed in the power, and depends upon the hearing of evidence dehors the obligation on which it is based and to which the power is attached.</p> <p>4. A power to confess a judgment against the donor of the power for an uncertain, unliquidated and unlimited amount of money paid out for water rate