Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. v. Williams

This action is brought to recover possession of a chattel sold to the defendant upon a conditional contract of sale. The purchase price was $1,600, $45 remaining unpaid thereon.

The summons and complaint were served upon the defendant in a cell in the Geneva police station where he had been taken because of his violent insanity, although he had never been judicially declared to be incompetent. He died the next day in the Willard State Hospital. The plaintiff now seeks to continue this action against the administrator of the estate of the deceased defendant.

The court has power to require the…