McLaughlin v. Citizens Building, Loan & Savings Ass'n

62 Ind. 264
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1878
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 62 Ind. 264 (McLaughlin v. Citizens Building, Loan & Savings Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McLaughlin v. Citizens Building, Loan & Savings Ass'n, 62 Ind. 264 (Ind. 1878).

Opinions

Howk, J.

The appellee sued the appellants, in this action, to recover the amount claimed to be due upon a written contract or note, executed by the appellants to the appellee, of which the following is a copy :

“ $500.00. Logansport, Ind., November 1st, 1873.

“ For value received, we promise to pay to the Citizens Building, Loan and Savings Association, of Logansport, Ind., the sum of five hundred dollars, with interest at ten per cent, per annum, payable monthly. This obligation is given for money loaned under the constitution, by-laws and regulations of said association; and, in case the said monthly interest, dues and fines or assessments, or any part thereof, shall remain unpaid for three months after the same become due, then and in such case this obligation shall become due and collectible; but, in case said interest and dues, fines or assessments, shall all have been paid as aforesaid, then the principal of this obligation shall become due, when the value of the assets of said association shall be sufficient to divide to each share of said ■stock the sum of five hundred. dollars, or its equivalent, and the said principal shall then be paid by applying a sufficient amount of the stock owned by the' undersigned to the payment of said principal, and thereupon the undersigned shall cease to have any interest in said stock so applied, and the same shall be cancelled. This obligation is given upon the further condition, that if, at any time, the directors shall deem the security unsafe or insufficient, [266]*266they may require additional security, and, if not given within the time granted, the whole amount of said principal and interest shall become due. And, in case this note is not promptly paid at maturity, we hereby agree and promise to pay the holder thereof the sum of ten percent, thereon for attorney’s fees and expenses of collection ; all to be paid without any relief whatever from valuation or appraisement laws. This note is not transferable.”

This note or contract was signed by each of the appellants, but we need not set out their names.

In the complaint counting on this note, it was alleged, in substance, that the appellee was an association, organ-ized and doing business in this State, under and by virtue of an act entitled “ An act for the incorporation and continuance of building, loan fund and savings associations,” approved March 5th, 1857; that the appellee’s articles of association, constitution and by-laws, a copy of which was filed with the complaint, were duly signed by the appellant Frank T. McLaughlin, who held five hundred dollars of the appellee’s capital stock, the aggregate amount of which capital stock was one hundred thousand dollars, the residue of which stock, not held by said McLaughlin, was hqld by sixty-six othei; corporatoi’s in said association; that, as the holder of said five hundred dollars of stock, the appellant McLaughlin became and was entitled to a loan, so-called, which consisted in receiving in advance, in cash, the ultimate value of said stock, which value consisted in its pro rata share of the accumulation of the interest, dues, fines and assessments of all its members; during the entire time of its incorporation each member was to pay a monthly due of two dollars and fifty cents, the fines per year would amount to, say, five hundred dollars, and the assessments would amount to one thousand dollars per year; that the funds of the association, arising from those sources, were loaned at ten per cent, interest, and were. [267]*267thereby increased; that it was a part of said contract of loan, so-called, that the amount received by the borrower, as an advance, was never to be repaid; hut that, when the appellee’s assets, derived from said sources, amounted to a sum equal to its capital stock, the contract would be surrendered and cancelled ; that the appellant Frank T. McLaughlin, holding five hundred dollars of the appellee’scapital stock, and by virtue thereof being entitled to a so-called loan from the appellee, on the 1st day of November,. 1873, at public auction, took out a so-called loan of five hundred dollars, and made, executed and delivered jointly with the other appellants their said note or obligation; that the monthly interest, dues, fines and assessments of said corporator, Frank T. McLaughlin, had become and remained due for more than three months before the commencement of this suit; and, under said note or contract,, and the constitution and by-laws of said association, of which they were corporators, the whole amount of said note or contract became and was due, and was wholly unpaid. Wherefore the appellee demanded judgment for eight hundred dollars, and all other proper relief.

The appellants demurred to appellee’s complaint, upon the ground that- it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, which demurrer was overruled',, and to this decision the appellants excepted.

The appellants then jointly answered in seven paragraphs, in substance, as follows :

1. A special answer of nul tiel corporation.

2. That, as to $250 of the note or contract in suit, it was given without a good or valuable consideration.

3. Payment of $250 of the note or contract sued on, in this, that it was corruptly and usuriously bargained, and agreed, by and between the appellee and the appellants,, among other things, that the borrower, the appellant McLaughlin, should pay monthly dues, five dollars, and in add[268]*268ition to the usurious interest of $250, corruptly reserved and bargained for in the body of said note, namely, as well interest on said $250 reserved as on the balance of said note, at the rate of ten per cent, per annum; and that, in pursuance of said agreement, the appellant McLaughlin, the borrower, paid dues, $75, and usurious interest, to wit, $175, in all $250, and interest thereon at the rate of ten per cent, per annum; and that the appellants were entitled to a credit for said sum and interest on the note or contract in suit.

4. That the 9th section of the act providing for the incorporation of building, loan fund and savings associations, approved March 5th, 1857, under which the appellee was incorporated, was unconstitutional and void, for the reason that it allowed the appellee, “ under the specious name of premiums,” to exact a higher rate of interest than ten per cent, .per annum.

6. And, for a further answer to the sum of $250, part and parcel of the note in suit, the appellants said, that, before the making of said note, it was corruptly and usuriously agreed between the appellee and appellants, that the appellants should have the preference of a loan of $500, as follows: The appellants were to pay to appellee as a “ premium, ” so-called, for said loan, forty per cent, of said $500, to he first deducted and reserved out of said $500; that the appellants should give tlreir note for the entire sum of $500, with surety thereon, with ten per cent, per annum, payable monthly on said entire sum; that, in pursuance of said agreement, thus illegally and usuriously made, the note in suit was executed, the appellee reserving not only forty per cent, of said $500, but ten per cent, in addition thereto, as and for interest in advance for one month, and the borrower receiving the sum of sixty per •cent., less the ten per cent., for one month, in all receiving about fifty-five per cent., or $275, and giving his note [269]*269with surety, at ten per cent, pér annum, for the entire $500.

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Bluebook (online)
62 Ind. 264, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mclaughlin-v-citizens-building-loan-savings-assn-ind-1878.