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• Title: Hogg v. Ruffner
• Author : United States Supreme Court
• Release Date : January 01, 1861
• Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 52 KB

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The Circuit Court held the notes which were due and to become due in the years 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865, and which were given for the eighteen thousand dollars, to be usurious and void, and the remainder of the notes valid, as covering only the debt justly owing to the parties by whom they were taken. The court accordingly decreed payment of the notes which were already due, with interest and costs. From this decree both parties appealed. Mr. Stanton and Mr. Phillips, of Washington city, for the defendant, contended that the decree of the Circuit Court was erroneous, because: 1st, it includes interest and costs; and, 2d, instead of taking the usury pro rata from all the notes, it takes the whole from the last of the series. The law of Indiana governs the case. The statute of that State provides that six per cent. shall be the legal interest, and if more is taken the contract shall not therefore be void; but if in an action on such contract it is proved to be usurious, the defendant shall recover costs, and the plaintiff shall recover only his principal, without interest. 1 Rev. Stat. of Ind., 343. If the last notes were usurious, it is difficult to see how the first could be free from the taint. It would seem upon principle that each note of the series must be infected with its share of the poison, and so are all the authorities. Parson on Cont., 390; Merritts vs. Law, (9 Cowan, 65;) Hammond vs. Howard, (13 Johns.;) Willard vs. Reeder, (2 McCord, 369;) Lacomic Bank vs. Johnson, (31 Maine, 414.) Mr. Hunter, of Ohio, for the complainant, insisted that the decree of the court awarding interest and costs to the complainant was not erroneous, even on the assumption that the contract was usurious. It is not affected by the statute of Indiana, for it is not alleged in the answer that the contract was made in that State, and by the common law a negotiable note in the hands of a bona fide holders, cannot be avoided for usury. Ang. & Ames on Corp., § 262; Seneca Co. Bank vs. Nafs, (5 Den., 330;) White vs. How, (3 M. L., 291.) The rule in England under the statute 12 Anne, c. 16, which declares all usurious securities to be void, is, that a note given on a usurious contract for the forbearance of a pre-existing debt is void, but the debt is not extinguished. Cro. Eliz., 20; 3 Campb., 119; 10 B. & C., 679. A fortiori such must be the rule in Indiana, where the statute expressly provides that the usurious contract itself shall not be void.

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