Tuition Plan, Inc. v. Zicari

70 Misc. 2d 918, 335 N.Y.S.2d 95, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1638
CourtSuffolk County District Court
DecidedAugust 14, 1972
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 70 Misc. 2d 918 (Tuition Plan, Inc. v. Zicari) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Suffolk County District Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tuition Plan, Inc. v. Zicari, 70 Misc. 2d 918, 335 N.Y.S.2d 95, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1638 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1972).

Opinion

Oscar Murov, J.

This action was brought on by the plaintiff corporation for payment of the sum of $1,276.65. This sum all allegedly represents the balance remaining from moneys paid by the plaintiff, a New York corporation, to St. Francis College, located in Loretto, Pennsylvania, for the tuition of the defendant’s daughter, one Patricia Zicari, who is presently a student at said institution.

The defendant allegedly signed an agreement entitled ‘1 Retail Installment Contract ’ ’ which sets forth the items making up the aggregate amount of the loan or contract as follows:

A — Cash payment of total tuition and other

school fees........................ $8,000.00

B — Charge for credit life insurance to be

procured by the holder.............. 154.40

[919]*919C — Unpaid balance ..................... 8,154.40

D — Finance charge...................... 1,303.20

E — Annual percentage rate —14.40%

F — Deferred payment................... $9,443.60

The agreement provided for 54 monthly installment payments, each in the sum of $175.70, commencing October 1, 1969. The defendant had in fact “ borrowed ” $2,100, or that sum was advanced by the plaintiff to St. Francis College, and the defendant repaid a portion of said moneys, leaving a balance remaining in the sum of $1,276.65.

The defendant answered this complaint by alleging that:

1. He never signed the agreement herein relied upon as evidence of his indebtedness, but rather, his wife executed the agreement.

2. The agreement is a loan and not a contract for a time-price sale and therefore violates New York’s laws against usury.

The plaintiff bases its claim on the following:

1. This is not a loan but a contract with St. Francis for a time-price sale to which the laws against usury do not apply.

2. Since the college is located in Pennsylvania and the plaintiff is a mere assignee of this alleged contract, Pennsylvania law applies and the allowable finance charges on all retail installment obligations in Pennsylvania are above the charge levied against the defendant.

After trial, the court finds, as a matter of fact and law, the following:

While applying to St. Francis, the defendant’s daughter was sent a brochure informing her of the fact of the existence of The Tuition Plan ” and the possibility of borrowing a maximum of $8,000 over a four-year period with planned monthly repayments to commence shortly after she enrolled at the school.

Consequently, the wife of the defendant affixed his signature to this agreement for $8,000 and mailed it to the plaintiff’s offices in New York City. The defendant’s allegation that he is an improper party to this action may be quickly dismissed since at his examination before trial the defendant admitted that the tuition plan agreement was executed by his wife at his specific request and he consequently relied on her to make all the necessary arrangements. Therefore, his contention that he is an improper party is without merit.

The threshold question for this court to resolve is, namely, is this a contract for a time-sale transaction or is this really a loan, though the parties may call it by another name ? The court finds, for the reasons hereinafter stated, that this transaction [920]*920was not a contract but a loan to which the usury laws of this State do indeed apply.

In order to form a valid contract there must be a person able to contract, a person able to be contracted with, a thing to be contracted for, a sufficient consideration, clear and explicit words to express the agreement, and the assent of both contracting parties (Justice v. Lang, 42 N. Y. 493). However, there is no consideration on the part of the college. Although the agreement in question is labeled a “ retail installment contract ” and the alleged contract purports to bind the college to render services, the court finds that the college has not bound itself to render services. It is true that an official of the college affixed his signature to a line in the agreement, beneath which stated: “accepted by SCHOOL. THIS AGREEMENT IS ASSIGNED TO THE TUITION PLAN, INC. PROVISIONS OE ASSIGNMENT ON THE REVERSE SIDE. ALL PAYMENTS DUE UNDER THIS AGREEMENT ARE PAYABLE TO THE TUITION PLAN INC.” The back of the agreement purports to assign this agreement for value but no evidence of such value appears in the plaintiff’s proof. Even though a recital of consideration is made by language in the agreement, this does not preclude the parties from disputing consideration and does not in itself give the promise any validity (Strobe v. Netherland Co., 245 App. Div. 573; Presbyterian Church of Albany v. Cooper, 112 N. Y. 517). In addition, the fortuitous presence in a transaction of some possibility of detriment, latent but unthought of, is not enough to furnish a consideration for a contract {Beck v. Sheldon, 259 N. Y. 208). The promise and the consideration must purport to be the motive each for the other, in whole or at least in part; it is not enough that the promise induces the detriment or that the detriment induces the promise if the other half is wanting (Allegheny Coll. v. National Chautauqua County Bank, 246 N. Y. 369).

The court is unable to find that the college has, expressly or by implication, agreed to provide the defendant’s daughter with a four-year education provided her parent execute the purported ‘1 contract ’ ’ with the college. Quite frankly, the court cannot find that there is consideration since the college has provided no real value to the defendant’s daughter (Mencher v. Weiss, 306 N. Y. 1). Since the college has not bound itself to provide $8,000 worth of services, the college has not entered into a contract with the defendant since a nonbinding promise is deemed insufficient consideration (Topken, Loring & Schwartz v. Schwartz, 249 N. Y. 206; Hathaway v. Bennett, 10 N. Y. 108).

[921]*921Consequently, any alleged “ contract ” with the school was a nullity and therefore unenforceable. What has been categorized as a time-sale agreement was, in reality, a disguised loan through which the plaintiff would lend money to individuals with an interest .rate far above the 7%% per annum allowable in this State (L. 1972, ch. 488). This court is not bound to categorize this transaction by applying blinders to its eyes and merely viewing the language used in the agreement. No case is to be judged by what the parties appear to be or represent themselves to be doing, but the transaction as disclosed by the whole evidence, and if from that it is in substance a receiving or contracting for the receiving of usurious interest for a loan or forbearance of money, the parties are subject to the statutory consequences, no matter what device they may have employed to conceal the true character of their dealings (Van Bee Serv. Co. v. Household Finance Corp., 51 N. Y. S. 2d 590, affd. 269 App. Div. 772). If it appears that the parties are making a loan, then the transaction will be considered a loan without regard to its form or to the fact that the parties call it by some other name (54 C. J. S., Loan, p. 655).

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

Related

Structured Capital Solutions, LLC v. Commerzbank AG
177 F. Supp. 3d 816 (S.D. New York, 2016)
DeSimon v. Ogden Associates
88 A.D.2d 472 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1982)
Bostwick-Westbury Corp. v. Commercial Trading Co.
94 Misc. 2d 401 (Civil Court of the City of New York, 1978)
Dynamics Corp. of America v. International Harvester Co.
429 F. Supp. 341 (S.D. New York, 1977)
Band Realty Co. v. North Brewster, Inc.
335 N.E.2d 316 (New York Court of Appeals, 1975)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
70 Misc. 2d 918, 335 N.Y.S.2d 95, 1972 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1638, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tuition-plan-inc-v-zicari-nydistctsuffolk-1972.