Favata v. Mercer

Joseph Favata and one calling himself Emmett Adams filed this suit in the superior court of Cook County for specific performance of a contract for the purchase of real estate. The complaint also prayed that the court set aside a certain deed conveying the property to subsequent purchasers. The seller, the subsequent purchasers and their husbands, the trustee under a trust deed, and the company occupying the property as a tenant were made defendants to the suit. The cause was referred to a master, who recommended a decree be entered in plaintiffs' favor. Defendants' exceptions to the report were sustained by the chancellor, and a decree was entered dismissing the suit for want of equity. Plaintiffs appeal directly to this court, as a freehold is involved. The evidence discloses that during the period in question the premises were owned by defendant Eva Mercer, and had been occupied by defendant D.M. Kerr Manufacturing Company as a lessee for more than twenty years. The lessee company is engaged in the manufacture and sale of canvas products. Plaintiff Emmett Adams, whose real name is Harry Sheehan, was also engaged in the canvas business and was a competitor of the defendant company. For a long period of time prior to September 15, 1947, he regularly visited defendant's factory several times a week and engaged in conversation with the president of the company, with whom he was well acquainted, and also with the superintendent, neither of whom knew him by any name other than Harry Sheehan. Frequently he came early in the morning and had breakfast with one of them at a nearby lunchroom. They would usually talk about defendant's business and about business conditions in general.