Ensign v. Colorado Investment Loan Co.
Ensign v. Colorado Investment Loan Co.
Opinion of the Court
The defendant is a building and loan association. The plaintiff was a member of the association. He applied to it for a loan of $1,000. The association arranged with the Dese-ret Savings Bank to let him have $900, which was paid to him by the bank. The association itself loaned him $100. In November, 1901, he executed a note to the bank in the sum of $900. To secure its payment, he gave the bank a mortgage on real estate owned by him of the value, with the buildings proposed, of $1,680. Notwithstanding the association loaned him only $100, he, nevertheless, at the same time executed •a note of $1,000 to the association, and gave it a second mortgage on the real estate to secure its payment. The bank’s note was payable in three years, with interest at 7 per cent, per annum; the association’s note of $1,000 on or before 120 months after dato “with interest thereon at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum on said sum ($1,000.00) and thirty cents on every $100.00 thereof.” The association entered into a written agreement with the plaintiff, but not with the bank, to assume and pay the principal and interest of the bank’s note, provided, however, in the event only that the plaintiff first paid the interest and principal of the bank note to the ■association. If he was in default on any one of such payments, the association’s agreement fi> assume and pay the interest or principal of the bank’s note ceased to be effectual, and-gave it the right to declare its own note due and payable.
In December, 1905, and when he had paid the association $701.70, he requested of it a statement of his account, and information upon what terms he could settle the loan. He was informed by the association that he still owed the bank the entire principal of $900 and interest from November, 1905, and that he still owed the association $46.98. Of the moneys received by the association from the plaintiff, it paid four years’ interest on the bank’s note, amounting to $252, and $119 premiums on the life insurance policy. The rest, the sum of $330.70, was retained by the association, and, after applying it to various transactions with respect to its loan and to matters and things which it claimed were stipulated for in the contract, it claimed there was yet due it the sum of $46.98. At this rate, and as provided by the terms of the agreement entered into between the plaintiff and the association, and the basis upon which the association applied plaintiff’s payments, it is computed that it would take fifty years to pay off his indebtedness, during which time he would be required to pay about $6,000 of a principal, and $3,200 interest, or á total of $9,200.
The plaintiff brought this action against the association, claiming that he had overpaid it on its actual loan in the sum of $255, and that it had wrongfully failed to give him credit for such sum paid by him, and had wrongfully converted it to its own use and benefit (the plaintiff still being liable to the bank for the full amount of his note executed to it), and demanded judgment against the association for the sum of $255.
We are not advised whether the court arrived at the conclusion that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover on the theory that he mistook his remedy, or on the theory that the court held him bound' by and gave effect to the contract, or on the theory that the legal effect of the contract was not raised by him, or that by reason of allegations in his complaint he estopped himself to raise such an issue. Plaintiff’s complaint is inartificial and confusing. However, we think it and the findings made by the court sufficient to grant
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GEORGE T. ENSIGN v. THE COLORADO INVESTMENT LOAN COMPANY, a Corporation
- Status
- Published