Jenkins v. Bauer

8 Ill. App. 634
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 15, 1881
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 8 Ill. App. 634 (Jenkins v. Bauer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jenkins v. Bauer, 8 Ill. App. 634 (Ill. Ct. App. 1881).

Opinion

Bailey, J.

Host of the questions raised by Walker’s assignments of error have been decided by the Supreme Court in the cases of Jenkins, assignee, etc. v. Greenbaum et al. 95 Ill. 11, and Jenkins, assignee, etc. v. The International Banket al. 97 Id. 580.

The case of Jenkins, assignee, etc. v. Greenbaum et al. arose out of transactions between Samuel J. Walker and Greenebknm and Foreman, of a character precisely similar to those disclosed by the present record, and the pleadings and proofs, so far as they related to the question of an accounting and to the defense of usury, were substantially the same as here. The case of Jenkins, assignee, etc. v. The International Bank et al., arose out of transactions between Walker and The International Bank, and was a suit by the bank to foreclose a large number of securities pledged by Walker as collateral to his promissory notes given to the bank for money loaned, thus constituting a part of the very dealings between Walker and the bank involved in the present suit. Those cases and this, as well as several others growing out of Walker’s transactions, were litigated in the court below qpcori passu, and were heard at tliesame time, the case of Jenkins v. The International Bank, and the present case being heard upon the same evidence, so far as applicable.

The right of tlm assignee of Walker to appear and prosecute the writ of error, about which some question has been raised here, is directly affirmed by the cases above cited.

The question as to the validity of the charter of The International Bank, raised by one of Walker’s assignments of error, is decided in Jenkins v. The International Bank, and also in the case of the People v. Loewenthal et al. 93 Ill. 191, which was a direct proceeding by quo viarranto, to test the validity of this very charter. In both of these cases it is held to be valid.

The two cases first cited conclusively establish the right of Walker, at least as against the International Bank, to avail himself under the pleadings in this case of the payments made by him as usurious interest, to the extent of disregarding the usurious agreements, and applying-as payments upon the the principal all moneys paid as interest in excess of the rate allowed by law, so far as such payments have been made in dealings which have not been fully closed up and terminated.

The point that the question of the refusal to apply the usurious payments to the reduction of the principal, was not raised by exceptions to the master’s report, and so cannot be raised here, is fully answered by the case of Jenkins v. The International Bank. In that case as in this, the order of reference expressly directed the master not to consider the question of usurious payments of interest upon any of the notes; and as the master was expressly prohibited from considering the subject of usury at • all, it would have been nugatory for Walker to offer evidence on the hearing before him, bearing upon that question, or to interpose exceptions on the ground of his refusal to disobey the express mandate of the order of reference.

An attempt, however, is made to distinguish Jenkins v. The International Bank from the present case, so far as it bears upon the defense of usury, as presented by this record. In that case the interlocutory decree, by which a reference to the master was ordered, failed to show that the court had, upon any preliminary hearing, found, whether in point of fact, the allegations of usury in the pleadings were sustained by the evidence, and yet in the order of reference the master was prohibited from considering that question. On reference to the original record in the case we find that the interlocutory decree commenced with the following recital; “And now this cause having come on this day to be heard, and the Court having announced the principles governing the same,” etc., after which followed the order referring the case to the» master, and laying down the principles upon which the account should be stated. The Supreme Court in their opinion say: “The circuit court, as we understand this record, without determining whether such payments were made or not, evidently held the inquiry immaterial or incompetent, under the pleadings, and so directed the master not to consider the question.” In a supplementary opinion filed on denying a petition for a rehearing, they say: “We cannot sanction the position of counsel that the court found, as a fact, that no usurious payments were made upon the notes in controversy. * * * Wliat we decide is, that it was error in the circuit court to ignore all questions relating to the allegations of payments of usurious interest. Had the circuit court found that no usurious payments had been made, we might examine the proofs as to such finding. In the absence of such finding, the master should have been directed to ascertain and report the facts in that regard.”

It is insisted that in the present case the court found the . facts which it failed to find in Jenkins v. The International Bank. The interlocutory decree, it is true, recites a hearing of the cause on pleadings and proofs, and that, on such hearing, divers facts appeared to the court to have been proven. In the recital of such facts in the decree is the following-clause : “That said S. J. Walker is not, nor are any of the parties hereto entitled to any deduction or set-off to any of said principal notes, on the ground of usury.” This is not, in terms, a finding that Walker had, in fact, made no payments of usurious interest, nor can we regard it, under all the circumstances of the case, as tantamount to such finding. Walker’s right to a deduction or set-off on the ground of usurious payments, depended, first, upon whether such payments had been properly pleaded, and secondly, upon whether they had been satisfactorily proved.

There was a controversy at the hearing over both these questions, especially the first, and we are quite as well warranted in the conclusion that the circuit court regarded the question of usurious payments as immaterial and incompetent under the pleadings, as that it found the averments on that subject unsustained by the evidence. In the International Bank case, where the pleadings and evidence on this subject were precisely the same as here, the court seems to have ruled out this defense on account of the insufficiency of the pleadings, and the present record fails to show that any different conclusion was reached in this case.

But even if we were to regard the recital in the interlocutory decree as tantamount to a finding that Walker had made no payments of usurious interest, we are clearly of the opinion that such finding is against the evidence. Our examination of the record leaves our minds entirely free from doubt that, on most of the loans made to Walker by the bank during the entire course of their dealings, interest was charged by the bank and paid by Walker at a rate exceeding ten per cent, per annum.

According to the testimony of Walker, the usual rate was two per cent, per month, though sometimes, by special arrangement, it was placed as low as eighteen or twenty per cent, per annum. His testimony is fully corroborated by that of Badger, an expert, who examined the books and papers of the bank with great care, and gave, as a witness, the results of his examination. This evidence is substantially uncontradicted.

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Related

Union National Bank v. International Bank
22 Ill. App. 652 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1887)

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Bluebook (online)
8 Ill. App. 634, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jenkins-v-bauer-illappct-1881.