Court Opinion

ID: 9522432
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:25:39.397643+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:02:46.953540
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Hershey, dissenting: A full and complete review of all of the pleadings and all of the evidence presented in this case compels me to dissent to the opinion of the majority. Plaintiff asserts: (1) a violation of a fiduciary relationship, and (2) a reliance upon a constructive trust. Plaintiff had the burden of proving the existence of the fiduciary relationship upon which he relies. That relationship cannot be established by the failure of defendants to prove that it did not exist. Plaintiff’s evidence fails to show more than the facts that the parties’ families were distantly related, that both men emigrated to this country together, that they were close friends, and that they mutually entered into business relationships and transactions. The plaintiff’s evidence is singularly devoid of proof that he placed such reliance and confidence in defendant, Henry D. Karandjeff, that a fiduciary relationship arose, wherein' defendant obtained a superior or dominant relation to plaintiff. The relationship alleged by the plaintiff is not proved by the evidence. The master so found, and the court so decreed. The findings of the master, adopted by the circuit court, are not manifestly against the weight of the evidence, and should, therefore, not be disturbed here. Plaintiff relies upon a theory of the existence of a constructive trust. The majority opinion deals solely with the defense of laches and does not consider the application of the Statute of Limitations. We have held that only express trusts are exempt from the bar of the five-year statute of limitations or of laches, (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1957, chap. 83, par. 16,) and that constructive trusts are subject to limitation or laches after a lapse of five years without action. (Schreiner v. City of Chicago, 406 Ill. 75; Lancaster v. Springer, 239 Ill. 472; Anderson v. Lybeck, 15 Ill.2d 227.) No repudiation of the constructive trust, if any, was necessary to set the statute in operation. The deeds in question were executed on February 20, 1940, and were recorded in Madison County, Illinois, on April 6, 1940. Whether plaintiff knew of the recording or not, they were then public records and plaintiff is charged with knowledge of them. (Miller v. Siwicki, 8 Ill.2d 362; Skordzki v. Sherman State Bank, 348 Ill. 403; Johnson v. Fulkerson, 12 Ill.2d 69.) There could be no fraudulent concealment subsequent to the recording. This complaint was not filed until February 20, 1950. Almost ten years had elapsed since the plaintiff received at least constructive knowledge of the deeds. The five-year statute of limitations is a complete bar to the present cause for establishment of a constructive trust. None of the cases upon which the majority relies involved a constructive trust. Plaintiff admits actual knowledge in the years 1946 or 1947 of the existence of these deeds. The fraud, if any, upon which plaintiff and the majority opinion rely was not concealed after April of 1940. That fraud, if any, should have been known by plaintiff upon the recording of the deeds. It is not now available to bar the application of the doctrine of laches or the statute of limitations, for it was not concealed during the ten years prior to the filing of this suit. Plaintiff had the burden of exercising reasonable diligence to discover the fraud now claimed. That diligence was not exercised if the plaintiff was unaware of his cause of action until 1946 or 1947. This cause is barred by both laches and the statute of limitations and its dismissal should be affirmed.