Greenville Building & Loan Ass'n v. Wholey

59 A. 341, 68 N.J. Eq. 92, 2 Robb. 92, 1904 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 10
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedDecember 1, 1904
StatusPublished

This text of 59 A. 341 (Greenville Building & Loan Ass'n v. Wholey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greenville Building & Loan Ass'n v. Wholey, 59 A. 341, 68 N.J. Eq. 92, 2 Robb. 92, 1904 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 10 (N.J. Ct. App. 1904).

Opinion

Pitney, V. C.

The case of the petitioner, briefly stated, is this: In August or September, 1892, she borrowed and received from complainant, in actual cash, $2,350; complainant has since paid for her, in actual cash, for taxes, &c., $156.67; total received, $2,506.67. Petitioner has paid complainant, in monthly installments, $2,497.58, leaving unpaid $6.09.

On September 12th, 1903, the master reported that there was due the complainant a balance of $1,909.50 — that is, petitioner has nearly repaid the whole amount actually received and still owes $1,909.50, nearly three-fourths of the original debt. Of these payments $1,747.79 were made between 1892 and 1898 (six years), in fifty-seven or fifty-eight monthly installments of $30.412/8 each; and $750.79 was paid between 1898 and 1901, in about forty-one monthly payments of $18.42 each, so that the amount due on the loan, according to- ordinary methods of calculation, should have been much reduced.

But at that time (1898) a sort of readjustment was made, by which the amount due was fixed at $1,700, minus $27.89, equaling $1,672.11, and a new mortgage, now under foreclosure, was given to secure this sum, payable in one hundred and forty-four monthly installments of $18.42 each.

Between 1898 and 1903, when the bill was filed, petitioner, as we have seen, paid $750.79 in about forty-one monthly installments, so that on any ordinary basis of calculating interest the debt of $1,700 should have been materially reduced. But instead of that we find a decree against her1 for $1,909.50, more than $200 greater than the debt at the date of the mortgage.

The result is such as to startle the mind of an ordinary business man, and to excite the attention of a chancellor.

This result, however, is attained by the use of the machinery adopted by the complainant in transacting its business of loaning money, and is sought to be justified by the act entitled “An act to encourage the establishment of mutual loan, homestead and building associations,” approved April 9th, 1875 (Gen. Stat. p. 331), and the various supplements thereto and acts amendatory thereof.

[94]*94The complainant was organized under that act as far back as 1875.

The object of the act is stated in the first paragraph, as follows:

“1. Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of Neio Jersey, That any number of persons, not less than five, may associate and form an incorporated company for the purpose of assisting each other, and all who may afterwards become associated with them, in acquiring real estate, making improvements thereon and removing incumbrances therefrom, by the payment of periodical installments; and for the further purpose of accumulating a fund to be returned to its members who do not obtain advances, for purposes above mentioned, when the funds of such association shall amount to a certain sum per share, to be specified in the articles of association.”

Article 2 of the constitution of the complainant is as follows:

“The object of this association is, by co-operation, to enable its members to become their own landlords, by providing funds for each member to purchase real estate within twenty-five miles of the city of Jersey City, and in the State of New Jersey, and to make improvements thereon.”

Acting under this legislative authority and in pursuance of that clause in its constitution, and to secure the debt of $1,700 above referred to, the complainant took from Mrs. Wholey, who is an ignorant and entirely illiterate woman and quite unfamiliar with any arithmetical processes, the bond and mortgage here in question, dated July 1st, 1898, and due July 1st, 1910, to be paid in monthly installments of $18.42 on the first of every succeeding month, one hundred and forty-four in number, with a clause providing that if default should be made in such payments for the space of thirty days, or if any taxes, assessments, water rents or other liens should remain unpaid for ninety days, then the whole amount of $2,652, or such part as shall remain unpaid, shall be at once due and payable.

The language of the mortgage corresponds.

There is no provision in either for the payment of fines, and the master has included in his report $9.29 for fines. There is no provision for the payment of interest.

The amount found due by him is computed in this wise:

[95]*95Amount secured by mortgage...................$2,652 00
Amount paid on account of monthly payments... • 751 79
Balance due on principal......................$1,900 21
Fines due.................................... 9 29
Total amount due.........................$1,909 50

As has been before observed, this is more than $200 in excess of the original debt.

The sum of $2,652, mentioned in the bond, is shown by complainant’s affidavits to be made up as follows:

Original debt (being amount advanced on three and two-fifths shares in the corporation) .... $1,700 00
Premium, at $150 per share of $500............ 510 00
Dues, ten years, twenty-five cents per week, or $13 per year per share.................... 442 00
$2,652 00

The ascertainment of the precise rate of interest which the petitioner is compelled by her contract to pay, is rendered a little difficult by the method adopted of paying the aggregate of principal and interest in installments. I have attempted it, roughly, in this wise: Two thousand six hundred and fifty-two dollars, the amount secured by the mortgage, less $1,700, the debt at the date of the mortgage, leaves $952 as the amount paid for interest for twelve years, but as the payments are made in monthly installments and the principal is being constantly reduced until it is wholly paid, the transaction consists, in substance, of a loan of $1,700 for six years, so that the petitioner will pay $952 for the use of $1,700 for six years, which is $158.662/3 per year, a rate of nine and one-third per cent, per annum. But I shall take it at nine per cent.

Before proceeding to deal with and dispose of the case on that basis, I shall make two remarks — first, I am ready to hear any suggestions that counsel may make as to the correct mode of ascertaining the true rate of interest and to correct my mode if found to be inaccurate; second, I have hitherto gone and shall proceed on the basis that if the mortgage had been paid in [96]*96full in due course, or shall be paid in full by the sale of the mortgaged premises, petitioner will have no valuable interest in any shares of stock in the complainant corporation. I can find nothing in the terms of the bond and mortgage, or anything contained in any of the evidence submitted or in tire argument of counsel, to suggest tire contrary.

The complainant justifies the report of the master by that clause, or those clauses, of the statute above referred to, which, in effect, gives a special dispensation to companies organized under the above-mentioned act to charge more than the legal rate of interest.

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Bluebook (online)
59 A. 341, 68 N.J. Eq. 92, 2 Robb. 92, 1904 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greenville-building-loan-assn-v-wholey-njch-1904.