Stone v. Fargo

Citations

• 55 Ill. 71

Syllabus

<p>1. Sale under trust deed—notice to the debtor—bad faith—inadequacy of price. A party holding certain real estate under a contract of purchase, sold the same, receiving from his vendee a part of the purchase price in cash, and for the residue his promissory notes, which were transferred before their maturity. Subsequently, this vendor forfeited his contract of purchase, and thereupon his vendee purchased front the original vendor, receiving a deed for the premises, and executing a deed of trust thereon to secure a portion of the purchase money, and at the same time receiving from his grantor a bond to indemnify him against his outstanding notes given on his former purchase. It was also agreed that steps should be taken, at the expense of the grantee in the trust deed, to restrain the collection of those outstanding notes, and to recover the money paid on the first purchase, which was to inure to the benefit of the vendor on the second sale. The trustee in the trust deed also agreed, as the agent of the holder, that the residue of purchase money secured thereby should not be demanded until the suit in respect to those notes should be determined, yet, pending that suit, and without any notice to the grantor in the deed of trust, the trustee sold the property, at a grossly inadequate price, the circumstances tending to show it was not a fair and real transaction with any of the parties to it; there was no money paid, or deed made to the purchaser, for a period of two months after the sale. It was held, the trustee’s sale should be set aside, on bill filed for that purpose, in order to a more equitable adjustment of the rights of the parties.</p> <p>2. Set off—in equity—against a debt due to an estate. A purchaser of land gave his notes for a portion of the purchase money, and simultaneously therewith, as a part of the same transaction, the grantor executed to the purchaser a bond to indemnify and save him harmless as against certain outstanding notes given by him upo