Merrin v. Lewis

Citations

• 90 Ill. 505

Syllabus

<p>1. Agency—proof of agents authority. A paper purporting to be an authority from a plaintiff to an attorney to make demand for the possession of land and bring an action of forcible detainer, the attorney testifying to having prepared the writing and the sending of the same by mail to the plaintiff and his receiving it back signed, will be sufficient proof of the attorney's authority to make a demand in writing, in his client’s name, of land, before bringing suit for its possession.</p> <p>2. Forcible detainer—proof of possession. Proof unobjected to, by a witness, that a defendant in a suit of forcible detainer was managing the land formerly owned by his son, and had possession, as the witness understood, since the son had left the State, is sufficient to authorize suit against the defendant, when wholly uncontradicted.</p> <p>3. Where the evidence showed that a party, after giving a mortgage on his land, left the State, leaving the premises in the possession and control of his father, it was held, in forcible detainer against the father by a purchaser, under a power of sale in the mortgage, that the defendant could not, after having taken possession under his son, attorn to a third person and give him possession, so as to avail against the right of the purchaser under the mortgage.</p> <p>4. Power of sale—who may execute on death of mortgagee. Where a mortgage on land confers a power of sale upon the mortgagee, his legal representatives or attorney, on default of payment, and the mortgagee dies, so that the indebtedness secured passes to his administrator, the latter may properly exercise the power as the legal representative of the mortgagee.</p> <p>5. Former adjudication—as a bar to suit. The record of a former judgment in a suit of forcible detainer, showing that the plaintiff had not made out his case, though for the same land, is not sufficient to bar a second suit, without extrinsic proof showing that the cause of action was the same in the prior as in the