Blumenfeld v. Mann

1927 OK 178, 258 P. 918, 126 Okla. 64, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 76
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 28, 1927
Docket16791
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1927 OK 178 (Blumenfeld v. Mann) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blumenfeld v. Mann, 1927 OK 178, 258 P. 918, 126 Okla. 64, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 76 (Okla. 1927).

Opinion

DIFFENDAFFER, C.

This is an action on a series of 12 promissory notes, brought by defendant in error against plaintiffs in error, and the petition is in th'e ordinary and usual form. ^ The parties will be designated herein as in the court below. Plaintiff alleges in the petition that the notes were executed and payable in ¡the state of Missouri. Defendants answer, and for a defense to said notes allege that the transaction out of which these notes arose was one between plaintiff and defendants in the state of New York, and allege that defendants entered into an agreement with plaintiff for the loan of the sum of $4,600, plaintiff charging defendants at the rate of two and one-half per cent, per month; that the original contract was usurious, and that these notes were given in renewal of a balance due on the original transaction; that in the original transaction defendants gave the plaintiff three notes executed by friends of theirs, and endorsed by defendants to the plaintiff, and alleging that in the aggregate defendants had paid the sum of $1,071 interest -on the indebtedness. Defendants plead the statute of New York, which provides that all bonds, bills, notes, etc., whereupon or whereby there shall be reserved or taken, or secured or agreed to be reserved or taken, a greater sum or rate of interest than six per cent, per annum, shall be void.

Defendants further plead a set-off or counterclaim in the sum of $3,342, being double the amount of interest claimed by th’em to have been paid. Plaintiff replied in the way of a general denial, and further alleged, as follows;

“Plaintiff alleges the facts to be that the plaintiff’s claim against the defendants, as set out in his petition filed herein, arose, originally, out of a transaction between the plaintiff and the defendant, Martin Blumenfeld, whereby the said defendant sold and conveyed for full value paid by the plaintiff and received by the said defendant 3 certain negotiable promissory notes; that it afterwards developed that the said notes were forgeries, and the plaintiff was unable to collect the same from the parties whose nam'es appear as makers thereon; that the defendant, Martin Blumenfeld, thereupon absconded from the jurisdiction of th'e state of New York, where said forged notes were executed and sold, to this plaintiff; and thereafter said defendant informed this plaintiff that he desired to pay the notes and did execute a series of notes, in lieu thereof, some of which have heretofore been paid, the balance of which constitute plaintiff’s cause of act An, as set out in his petition herein, and that the plaintiff paid the said defendants full value for all of said notes, and that h'e never, at any time, charged, collected or reserved usurious interest from the defendants, or eAher of them.”

Upon the issu'es thus joined, the cause was tried to a jury resulting in the verdict and judgment for plaintiff from which defendants prosecute this appeal.

The defendants, in their brief, set out eight propositions, upon which they present their contentions that the judgment of the lower court should be reversed. These propositions will be considered in their order.

*66 The first is, that plaintiff’s defense to the defendants’ charge of usury, as supported by the deposition of plaintiff, Morris Koppelman, is a complete departure from,, and at variance with, the issue raised by the defendants’ amended answer, and the plaintiff’s reply thereto.

The point here raised is that defendants in their amended answer pleaded that the original transaction, out of which the notes in suit arose, was an agreement between the plaintiff and defendants for th’e loan of money in the state of New York, plaintiff agreeing to lend defendants the sum of $4,600 for a period of 90 days, upon-condition that defendants pay the plaintiff the said loan, interest at the rate of 2Vi per cent, per month, and that plaintiff at the time deducted from the amount so agreed to be loaned the sum of $346 and that from time to time they paid plaintiff various sums on the principal, and as interest, total amount of interest thus paid being $1,671; and tnat plaintiff, in his reply, after .specifically denying that he had reserved., charged, collected, or received from defendants usurious inter'est in any sum, alleged the facts to he:

“That the plaintiff’s claim against the defendants, as set out in his petition filed heroin, aros'e. originally, out of a transaction between the plaintiff and the defendant, Martin Blumenfeld, whereby the said defendant sold and conveyed for full valu'e paid by the plaintiff and received by the said defendant, three certain negotiable promissory notes.”

Defendants complain that plaintiff was allowed over their objection to introduce evidence to the effect that the original transaction was one where one Morris Kopp’elman had bought the three original notes from the defendants, and that he, Koppelman, had afterwards sold same to the plaintiff.

The variance seems material, for the reason that if defendants obtained the original loan from Koppelman, and if they merely sold him the three notes at a discount, and he afterwards sold them to plaintiff, the plaintiff would not be held responsible for the usury, if any, involved in the original transaction.

It is contended by defendants that if the original transaction was between plaintiff and defendants for the loan of money, and a greater rate of interest than 6 per cent, per annum was charged therefor, either by way of deducting same from the face of the note, or by payment (hereof in cash by che defendants, the contract was void under the law of the state of New York, where both parties at that time lived, and where the alleged contract was consummated, and that any notes taken in renewal of the original contract would likewis’e be void. Defendants plead the statutes of New York and also cate the case of Hanauer v. Smith, 196 App. Div. (N. Y.) 29, which to-getherc with the case therein cited supports their contention. In the case of Han-auer v. Smith, supra, it was said:

“A sale of accommodation paper is treated as a loan of money, the purchas’er being the lender and the seller the borrower. This has been frequently held, the last words of the Court of Apimals on the subject be2ng in Strickland v. Henry, supra, where the court said: ‘This action was brought on a promissory note for $175 made by William Henry to the order of Tony Rheims. who thereafter, and before maturity, indorsed it and delivered it to plaintiff, receiving therefor $157.50. The answer s’et up usury, the claim of defendant and Rheims being that the note had no legal inception prior to its delivery to plaintiff, inasmuch as it had been made by defendant solely for the accommodation of Rheims. If such w’ere the fact the trans-actiicfci between K,heim|s and plaintiff amounted in law to a discount of an accommodation note at a greater discount than 6%, for the sale of accommodation paper is treated as a loan of money, the purchaser b’eing the lender and the seller the borrower.”

If, however, the three notes in question were sold by defendants to Koppelman, and Koppelman retailed usurious inter'est and afterwards sold the notes to plaintiff, then, although the transaction between defendants and Koppelman were void, th’e notes in the hands of plaintiff would' be valid.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1927 OK 178, 258 P. 918, 126 Okla. 64, 1927 Okla. LEXIS 76, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blumenfeld-v-mann-okla-1927.