Berrien v. Avco Financial Services, Inc.
Berrien v. Avco Financial Services, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
1. Under Code Ann. § 25-315 (b) of the Georgia Industrial Loan Act as it stood when the note here under consideration was executed in 1963, the lender had a right to a recording charge and also to a fee of $1.00 in addition to the percentage amounts stated in the Act. It is irrelevant to the consideration of this case that the $1.00 charge was eliminated by Ga. L. 1964, pp. 288, 291. It was accordingly proper for the trial court to strike the defendant’s first and second defense to a suit on a promissory note given to a loan company as against the contention that this charge constituted an unauthorized collection of a fee amounting to usury.
2. The balance due on the loan as of April 16, 1965, remained unpaid at the time the suit was brought in July 1970. Since it was proper to sue for interest on the overdue and unpaid balance, and such interest does not constitute a violation of Code Ann. § 25-315, it was proper to strike the fifth defense on motion.
3. What has been said above disposes of the allegations of the defendant’s counterclaim, and it was not error to strike the counterclaim seeking recovery of instalments paid prior to the default.
4. The plaintiff also moved to strike each of the defenses to the petition, and the trial court, after granting the motion, entered a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, reciting that he had considered the pleadings, interrogatories and answers. This was in effect a summary judgment under Code Ann. § 81A-112, since it appears to have been in response to a motion for judgment on the pleadings where matters outside the pleadings were considered. Only one order was entered, reciting that the plaintiff’s
The trial court did not err in striking the first, second, and fifth defenses. It was error to strike the third and fourth defenses and to enter summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff.
Judgment reversed.
Concurring Opinion
concurring specially. I concur in the result reached in this case; and as to Division 4 of the opinion, I concur in the rulings (a) that it was error to strike the third and fourth defenses, and (b) that the plaintiff was not entitled to summary judgment because it failed to prove that it was licensed to do business under the Act. But I cannot concur in the ruling that those two defenses would not have militated against the grant of summary judgment, and the implications of what is thereafter said which places the burden of proof upon the party opposing the motion for summary judgment. The third and fourth defenses were affirmative defenses, and while the defendant would have the burden of proving them upon the trial, the burden here was upon the plaintiff movant to negative these defenses. 6 Moore’s Federal Practice (2d Ed.), Par. 56.15[3], pp. 2341-2343; Southern Bed Telephone &c. Co. v. Beaver, 120 Ga. App. 420 (2, 3, 4) (170 SE2d 737); Werbin & Tenenbaum, Inc. v. Heard, 121 Ga. App. 147 (2, 3) (173 SE2d 114).
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