Carter & Grimsley v. Omni Trading, Inc.
Illinois Appellate Court
716 N.E.2d 320 (1999)
Facts
Omni Trading, Inc. (Omni) (defendant) bought grain from Country Grain, which Omni paid for using two checks totaling $75,000. Country Grain indorsed the checks to Carter & Grimsley (Carter) (plaintiff) as a retainer for future legal services. Carter deposited the checks. The next day, Country Grain went out of business. Accordingly, Omni stopped the payments on the checks. Carter sued Omni and a state-government official because the government had a statutory lien in Country Grain’s assets and argued that Carter was entitled to the proceeds of the checks plus prejudgment interest as a holder in due course. The government also claimed that it was entitled to the proceeds of the checks. Carter and the government both moved for summary judgment. Carter did not present any evidence to show that Carter performed any legal services for Country Grain before Carter received the checks. The trial court ruled in the government’s favor. Carter appealed and argued that executory contracts for future legal services should be treated differently from other executory contracts.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Lytton, J.)
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