Parker v. United States Building, Land & Loan Ass'n

19 W. Va. 769, 1882 W. Va. LEXIS 20
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedMay 6, 1882
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 19 W. Va. 769 (Parker v. United States Building, Land & Loan Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parker v. United States Building, Land & Loan Ass'n, 19 W. Va. 769, 1882 W. Va. LEXIS 20 (W. Va. 1882).

Opinion

GeeeN, Judge,

announced the opinion of the Court:

The five different deeds of trust given by Parker & Brothers on various parcels of real estate named in them have all the same character of provisions differing only in the notes secured and the property conveyed as security. They all are on the trusts expressed in the several deeds of trust, to wit: in trust to secure to the United States Building, Land and Loan Association of Wheeling the prompt and full payment of the several notes made by Parker & Brothers, stating their several dates and when payable, with interest from date payable quarterly in advance; and further to secure to the United States Building, Land and Loan Association the prompt and full payment, when due, on each instalment of in-[776]*776ferest on each note secured in the particular deed of trust, the prompt payment of all dues, fines and other charges, with which Parker & Brothers may be assessed as members of said association, and the repayment of all sums, which the said association may have to pay for taxes, insurance and other charges on the property conveyed by the particular deed of trust. And in each of these deeds is added this clause: “It is understood and agreed, not only that the trustee under this deed may sell upon default in the payment of the principal of any of said notes (referring to the notes secured in the particular deed) when due, according to its tenor and effect, but upon default-in the payment, when due, of any instalment of interest thereon, or in the default in the payment by said Parker & Brothers of any dues, fines or other charges, with which they'may be assessed as members of said association, or upon their failure to keep the taxes on said property (convoyed) paid up, or. to keep the building thereon insured to such amount as the association may require, the whole of the principal of said notes (those secured by the particular deed of trust) shall be considered as due, and the trustee may sell, although in such case no part of any of said notes may be due otherwise than under the provisions of the deed.” The dues, fines and charges referred to in each deed of course are to be interpreted to mean the dues, fines and charges arising from ;the ownership by them of the particular shares redeemed, for the redemption of which the note named in each particular deed of trust was given, and cannot of course be construed as referring to the dues, fines or charges, which might result from the ownership of any other shares, whether owned at the .time the particular deed of trust was given or acquired subsequently.

What is really secured by these deeds of trust ? That must depend upon the view, which we take of the real character of the transaction between a building association and a member, ■when a share of his stock is redeemed. Such transaction is .not either an advance made to the member of his future profits and a pledge of his shares redeemed for the repayment of .the same, nor is it a sale by the member of his share redeemed to the building association, but it is a loan by the building association to him of money, he agreeing to pay a premium [777]*777for the preference given him over other members in taking the loan. This was decided by this court in the case of Pfeister v. The Wheeling Building Association, supra.

We must therefore now consider, w'hat is the amount of this loan. Is it the par value of the share, which the member had redeemed, for which according to the practice of this association in this ease it took the note of the member, or is it the actual sum of money, which the building association in point of fact pays to the member ascertained by substract-ing from the par value oí his share the premium he bid for the preference given him in taking the loan? The solution of this question must depend on the meaning of the words “ loans advanced and premiums bid by members ” as used in sec. 27 of chap. 54 of Code of Wrest Virginia, under which act building associations in this State are organized. The language used in this section is “ Every such corporation is authorized to levy and collect from its members such sums of money, by stated dues, fines, interest on loans advanced, and premiums bid by members for the right of precedence in taking loans, as the corporation by its laws shall provide.” The section concludes: “provided that the dues, fines and premiums paid by the members of such corporation, although paid in addition to the legal rate of interest on loans taken by them, shall not be construed to make the loan so taken usurious.”

The meaning of these words “ loans advanced and premiums bid,” as used by the Legislature in the connection, in which they were used, we would naturally seek to find in the interpretation placed upon them in the practice of building associations in transactions of the character referred to in the statutes. These words are clearly in their connection to be regarded as in a sense technical. They were ordinary words but were used with reference to a new subject; and it was evidently felt, that neither the word premium nor the word loan would very accurately express the ideas intended to be conveyed ; and a difficulty was experienced, as it is in many of the operations of a building association, to accurately express by ordinary language their extraordinary mode of doing business. The best the Legislature could do was to qualify the words “ loan” and premium,” which did not express accurately the ideas intended to be conveyed, and to say “ loans ad[778]*778vanced” and “ premiums bid.” The practice of building associations had given to those words a meaning, which was to some extent definite ; and we must presume, that this was the meaning, which the Legislature intended to convey by the use of these phrases in this 27th section.

In England both prior to and after the act passed in 1836 for the chartering of building associations, their mode of doing business bears in many respects a striking resemblance to the mode, in which such business is usually done in this State. This mode of doing business is given in Fleming v. Self, 27 Eng. Law & Eq. 491. When that association had money on hand, it offered it to the member, who would allow the largest discount on the par value of his shares at the end of the association; and he gave security very similar to that given in the present case, the only marked difference being, that instead of paying interest monthly on the sum of money actually advanced or, as is demanded by the association in this case, interest on the par value of his shares, the redeeming member paid monthly a certain specified sum named in the constitution on each share redeemed. But in fixing this sum called redemption-money, required by its constitution to be paid, as we may judge from the amount constantly received, an amount was selected less even than the legal rates of interest on the sum, which on an average would be actually advanced. Thus in the building association whose case was before the Court in Fleming v. Self, 27 Eng. L. & Eq. 491, this redemption-money would be as shown by a calculation only two and one tenth per cent, interest on the par value of the shares, that is it was only 3s., 6d. per month on a share upon par value was £100.

In Mosley v. Baker this redemption money in another association was at precisely the same rate per cent, on the par value of theshares, that is, 2 1-10 per cent, per annum or four shillings per month on £120, the par value of a share in that association.

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Related

Wohlford v. Citizens' Building, Loan & Savings Ass'n
40 N.E. 694 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1895)

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Bluebook (online)
19 W. Va. 769, 1882 W. Va. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parker-v-united-states-building-land-loan-assn-wva-1882.