Aguirre v. Packard
Aguirre v. Packard
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court—Cope, J. concurring.
The finding of the Court 'in this case was erroneous. The account presented by the plaintiff against the estate of the intestate, is an open account running through several years. Interest is allowed at the rate of six per cent, per annum on the balance sued for, for some eighteen months; and then interest on this same balance for eight years and ten months, at ten per cent, per annum. We suppose that the rule adopted was, to charge interest at six per cent, until the passage of our statute on the subject of interest—as the rate of interest obtaining in California under the Mexican dominion—and until the State had been formed and enacted a new law, and to charge interest afterward according to that law. But this is inadmissible. Interest follows the contract according to the law in existence at the time and place of the contract, or of the performance of it. But a subsequent change of the legal rate of interest does not affect the contract. It does not appear where this contract was made. The account presented to the administrator does not show any item of interest.
The question of prescription is not very clearly presented on the pleadings and facts, and it is not necessary for us to pass upon it.
Judgment reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- AGUIRRE v. PACKARD, Administrator
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- 5 cases
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- Syllabus
- Interest follows a contract, according to the law in existence at the time and place of the contract, or of the performance of it. A subsequent change in the legal rate of interest does not affect the contract. It is error to charge six per cent, interest on a contract made before the passage of our statute as to interest, up to the date of the statute, and ten per cent, afterward. Where the account presented to an administrator for allowance contains no item for interest, and the face of the paper does not show that interest results necessarily from the facts stated as constituting the claim, interest is not recoverable.