McDaniel v. Orr

30 S.W.2d 489
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedJune 25, 1930
DocketNo. 1192—5534
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 30 S.W.2d 489 (McDaniel v. Orr) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDaniel v. Orr, 30 S.W.2d 489 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1930).

Opinion

SHORT, P. J.

This suit was instituted in the district court of Lubbock county, by L. A. MeDhniel and wife, plaintiffs in error, to recover against 6. H. Orr, the defendant in error, double the amount of alleged usurious interest, paid by the plaintiffs in error and received by the defendant in error, the action being one of debt based on article 5073, R. S. The case has been tried twice in the district court, and two opinions have been written by the Court of Civil Appeals of the Seventh Judicial District, the first being reported in 5 S.W.(2d) 175, and the other in 30 S.W.(2d) 487, where the nature and results of the litigation are fully outlined. Both, trials in the district court resulted in favor of the plaintiffs in error, and both appeals to the Court of Civil Appeals resulted in judgments reversing the action of the trial court and remanding the case for further trial. The writ of error has been granted by the Supreme Court on account of the conflicts alleged.

The plaintiffs in error borrowed $2,000 from the defendant in error and repaid that sum, together with $306 additional, about five months thereafter. The plaintiffs in error alleged that this $306 was paid by them and received by the defendant in error as interest. The defendant in error contended that while $56 of this sum was paid by plaintiffs in error and received by him as interest, the remainder of the $306 was paid by plaintiffs in error and received by him for services rendered the plaintiffs in error. The trial court submitted only one issue of fact to the jury. This issue is in this language: “Do you find, from the preponderance of the evidence, that the plaintiff, McDaniel, paid defendant, Orr, the $250.00, as interest?” Answer “Yes” or “No.” The jury answered this question, “Yes.” Upon this finding and the further finding by the court that in addition to the $250, plaintiffs in error had paid to the defendant in error, the further sum of $56, judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiffs in error against the defendant in error for the sum of $612. No other issue was requested by either of the parties, and no objection was made to the issue submitted, either as to substance or form.

The Court of Civil Appeals, in reversing the judgment of the trial court and remanding the case for another trial, held that the plaintiffs in error were not entitled to a judgment upon this finding alone, stating that this find[490]*490ing of tile jury does’ not include the proposition that defendant in error had collected the money as interest, nor did it authorize the trial court to conclude, as a matter of law, that there was an unlawful and corrupt intent on the part of defendant in error to violate the law.

“ ‘Interest’ is the compensation allowed by law or fixed by the parties to a contract for the use or forbearance or detention of money.” Article 5069. Article 5071 provides that any stipulation for any rate of interest exceeding 10 per cent, in any contract, directly of indirectly, shall be void as to the interest. The policy of the state, as evidenced by these statutes, mates plain the fact that while parties may agree upon a rate of interest as high as 10 per cent., any agreement to pay a higher rate of .interest is void. By virtue of the statute, where there is shown an agreement between the parties to pay- a higher rate of interest than 10 per cent., the party receiving such interest is penalized to the extent of double the amount of interest charged and received. All that the debtor has to do, in order to be entitled to this recovery, is to specially plead the facts, and verify the pleading by his affidavit, supporting the plea by the facts alleged, to the effect that there was a written contract between him.and his creditor, which either directly or indirectly provided for a greater rate of interest than 10 per cent., and that in pursuance of this contract he had paid to the creditor, as interest, a sum greater than 10 per cent., which sum the creditor had received as interest. In this case the plaintiffs in error, by their pleadings and their testimony, made out a case under the statute entitling them to a recovery of double the amount of the interest paid by them and received by the defendant in error. The defendant in error, by his testimony, contended that he had only received $56 as interest, which was within the legal rate, and that the remaining $250, which he had received, was paid by the plaintiffs in error and received .by him as compensation for services 'rendered in issuing some checks and locating some ears of lumber, which the plaintiffs in 'error intended to use in building their home. With the testimony in this condition there was only one issue,of fact raised. The ultimate fact to be determined by the verdict of .the juryi under this conflicting testimony, was the intention of the parties as reflected by their conduct. Bearing upon this ultimate issue, the jury had before it the testimony of the'plaintiff in error McDaniel, to the effect that he received from the defendant in error $2,000, as a loan, which he kept about five months, and when it was repaid, and he had received from the defendant in error a written acquittance of his obligation, he had been compelled to pay, in addition, to the $2,000, the sum of $306. The jury also had before it the testimony of the defendant in error, Orr, that he loaned the plaintiff in error McDaniel $2,000, taking an instrument in the form of a materialman’s lien, and also a mortgage on some other property, and a note for $2,000, and that at'the end of about five months, he delivered these instruments to the plaintiffs in error, or their legal representative, with an acquittance of all demands, receiving therefor $2,306, and while plaintiffs in error kept the money, he (the defendant in error) wrote out some checks and looked after the handling of some cars of lumber, and that it was for these things he charged the $250 extra. The jury, having heard this testimony, concluded that the testimony of the defendant in error was not true, but that of the plaintiffs in error was true.

The Court of Civil Appeals in its opinion cites the case of Ormsby v. Ratcliffe, 117 Tex. 242, 1 S.W.(2d) 1084, in support of its conclusion that the plaintiffs in error were required to plead and prove that the intention of the defendant in error was to charge and collect usurious interest in the transaction between him and plaintiffs in error. In the case of Ormsby v. Ratcliffe the doctrine is stated that in trials to juries on special issues, the failure to request submission of any issue which constitutes a complete ground of recovery or a complete defense is a waiver of such ground of recovery, or of such defense, under Rev. St. 1925, art. 2190, and of articles 2185 and 2186. Under the testimony introduced in this case, as measured by the law, upon which the plaintiffs in error rely for their right to a recovery, the issue presented to the jury and decided by it furnished, as to the $250 paid by plaintiffs in error and received by defendant in error, every fact necessary to establish a complete ground of recovery by the plaintiffs in error. It may be that the defendant in error would have had the right to have had submitted to the jury, in an affirmative way, the defense upon which he relied, which was that the $250 was not paid as interest nor was it received by him as interest, but as1 compensation for services. However, no request for the submission of any such issue was made, and therefore the defendant in error is in no position to complain that the jury was not given an opportunity to pass upon this issue in an affirmative way.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Terry v. Teachworth
431 S.W.2d 918 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1968)
Moser v. John F. Buckner & Sons
292 S.W.2d 668 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1956)
Sledge v. Murphy
284 S.W.2d 938 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1955)
Mossler Acceptance Co. v. Kieke
244 S.W.2d 569 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1951)
Mossler Acceptance Co. v. Fields
241 S.W.2d 255 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1951)
Associates Inv. Co. v. Sosa
241 S.W.2d 703 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1951)
Greever v. Persky
165 S.W.2d 709 (Texas Supreme Court, 1942)
Greever v. Persky
156 S.W.2d 566 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)
Stevenson v. Wilson
130 S.W.2d 317 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1939)
Wichita Falls & Oklahoma Ry. Co. v. Pepper
101 S.W.2d 365 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1937)
Safety Casualty Co. v. McGee
93 S.W.2d 519 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1936)
National Bond & Mortgage Corp. v. Mahaney
80 S.W.2d 947 (Texas Supreme Court, 1935)
Ballard v. Shock
91 S.W.2d 385 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1933)
Jowell v. Billingsley
66 S.W.2d 809 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1933)
Fires v. Kinney-Shotts Inv. Co.
59 S.W.2d 827 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1933)
Wood v. Continental Sav. & Bldg. Ass'n
56 S.W.2d 641 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1933)
Garrett v. State
51 S.W.2d 822 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
Fidelity Union Casualty Co. v. Arnold
40 S.W.2d 954 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1931)
Fires v. Kinney-Shotts Inv. Co.
40 S.W.2d 911 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1931)
Berryman v. Norfleet
41 S.W.2d 722 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
30 S.W.2d 489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdaniel-v-orr-texcommnapp-1930.