Minneapolis Harvester Works v. Kaessner
Minneapolis Harvester Works v. Kaessner
Opinion of the Court
Defendant in error commenced an action in the district court of Douglas county, against the Minneapolis Harvester Works and Silas Cobb, alleging in his petition as cause of action: “That on the 15th day of December, 1887, plaintiff made and executed to the defendant corporation a certain promissory note for the sum of one thousand and thirty dollars ($1,030), to be due and payable on the 10th day of June, 1888, which said note was for a consideration of nine hundred and ten dollars ($910) and was usurious to the extent of the remaining one hundred and twenty dollars ($120).” The petition further states that, as collateral security for the payment of the $1,030 note, Kaessner delivered to the company a number of notes of other parties belonging to him, and on the 16th day of October, 1889, paid to the company the'sum of $250 to apply on the note for $1,030; that the plaintiff in error collected of the collaterals the sum of $775.65, which, together with the $250, amounted to the sum of $1,025.65, or $115.65 of a surplus or overpayment of the $910, which, deducting the usurious portion of the $1,030, i. e. $120, was the true amount due on said note; that there remained of the col-laterals in the hands of plaintiff in error notes aggregating the sum of $325, to which, by the payment of the amount due on the $1,030 note, or $910, Kaessner became entitled. He alleges a demand for the remaining notes of the collaterals, a refusal to deliver them to him, their conversion, and asks judgment for the $115.65, overpayment on the note, and $325; alleged value of the converted collaterals. To this the answer was: “The defendant admits that the note mentioned in the petition was executed for $1,030, due and payable at the time
The only assignment of error we will notice is, that the
Q,. What was this $120 difference between the $910 and $1,030 for?
A. It was for forfeiture of overdue payments.
And in another place, during cross-examination, states:
Q,. You stated that there was $120 in this note that you do not owe?
A. Yes, sir.
Q,. Why then did you execute a note for an amount that you didn’t owe?
A. I did the year before, and I got my note.
The Court: You are asked to state why you did it.
A. It was their custom. They requested me to do so.
Mr. Cobb: How do you know it was their custom ?
A. I done it the year before.
Q,. You did that because it was their custom, did you?
A. Yes; that is what I did.
Q. You executed a note for $120 more than you were indebted to them simply because it was their custom to
A. That is the way we done it.
Q. Is that the only reason you executed a note for $120 more than you owed?
A. That is all.
There is nothing in this which shows the taking of illegal interest or contracting for it. A failure to prove that the $120 was a usurious amount as pleaded in the petition left the amount of the note as expressed by its terms, $1,030, and the payments made were insufficient to extinguish the indebtedness and entitle Kaessner to the collateral notes. It follows that the evidence is not ^sufficient to sustain the verdict and the judgment must be reversed. If it be claimed that, notwithstanding the proof on behalf of Kaessner was not sufficient to establish'that the $120 of the $1,030 consideration of the note was usurious, yet it did tend to establish that the amount of the note should have been $910, it will not cure, the error or assist us, as we must then apply the rule that a party is not allowed to allege in his petition one cause of action and prove another upon trial. (Imhoff v. House, 36 Neb., 28.)
There are some other points argued in the briefs in reference to other branches of the case, but as the case must be returned to the lower court for another trial, we will not discuss them at this time.
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Minneapolis Harvester Works v. Gustave Kaessner
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published