Hardman v. Wilson

Ohio Supreme Court
Hardman v. Wilson, 40 Ohio St. (N.S.) 630 (Ohio 1884)

Hardman v. Wilson

Opinion of the Court

By the Court.

1. W. sued upon a note. The answer set up payments of usurious interest. The reply stated that the original loan was made upon a note for $1,500; that it was renewed several times. That after said payments of usury it was agreed by and between the payee and principal maker “that there should then be a final settlement and payment of said loan and interest, and that said loan should not be continued longer.” But the said principal debtor “not then being ready to pay,” a new note for $1,500 (made by and payable to same parties as the original note) was delivered and accepted “ in payment of said former notes and not in renewal thereof.” This was the note sued on. The common pleas overruled a demurrer to this reply.

Held: The reply did not describe “a complete settlement and liquidation between the parties and voluntary payment of interest ” (12 Ohio, 159) such as bars inquiry for and deduction of legal interest. As stated it represented a plain attempt to evade the usury laws of the State, and the demurrer should have been sustained.

2. The common pleas rendered a judgment in January, 1879. The district court dismissed a petition in error in March, 1880. A second petition in error was filed in the same court. The dismissal of 1880 was pleaded in bar, and in March, 1881, this plea was sustained by a judgment of dismissal. In September, 1881, a petition in error was filed in the supreme court, asking the reversal, first, of the judgment of 1880, and second, of that of 1881.

*631Held: In tlie absence of any motion to this petition, all of it relating to the judgment of 1881 is treated as surplus-age. The judgment of 1881 ceases to operate except as to its own costs, after the judgment of 1880 is reversed.

Judgment of district court and common pleas reversed.

Reference

Status
Published