First National Bank v. Pennington
First National Bank v. Pennington
Opinion of the Court
Action was instituted to recover an amount alleged to be due the bank as indorsee from the adverse parties herein upon a promissory note. In the answer filed there was what was presented for a plea of usury in the inception of a stated number of transactions between the State Bank of Lushton and the defendants, in each of which there was given and taken a promissory note, each subsequent to the first, being but a renewal of the prior indebtedness and, as was the first, tainted with usury. The reply was a general denial of the new matter of the answer. A trial of the issues resulted in a verdict for the defendants, and the plaintiff has prosecuted an error proceeding to this court. At the inception of the introduction of evidence there was a demurrer ore tenus to the answer, which was overruled, and it is now urged that the answer did not contain a plea of usury, and the court erred in its ruling on the demurrer.
The answer was probably not as specific and complete a plea, or connected set of pleas, of the usury sought to be interposed as a defense in the action as might have been framed, but liberally construed, as it must be against an attack by demurrer of the stage of proceedings in a cause that the one herein was, the answer contained a sufficient plea of the usurious nature of each transaction to which it referred, also of them considered connectedly, or as a whole.
One of the questions raised by the answer and litigated as an issue was the character of the ownership of the plaintiff of the note in suit, — whether it was an innocent
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- First National Bank of Cobleskill, New York v. L. A. Pennington
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published