Lay v. Bouton

Citations

• 73 Wash. 372
• 131 P. 1153
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1608

Syllabus

<p>Usury — Unlawful Exactions — Contracts—Construction. There was an obvious evasion of Rem. & Bal. Code, § 6251, prohibiting usury, where it appears that plaintiffs, having contracts for the purchase of land, borrowed $2,000 from the defendants on the security of the contracts, agreeing to repay the amount and interest on a certain date, and if not so paid, to pay the balance due and moneys advanced for taxes and liens, “either in cash or in lots at the agreed valuation of $50 per lot” which was much less than the value of the lots, and later a second contract was made, reciting a settlement whereby the defendants advanced the sum of $2,098 to complete payment for the land, and received ten lots of- the value of $250 each and notes aggregating $6,098, at a time when but $4,098 was due them on the original contracts and the advances, and making a bonus of $2,500 in land and $2,000 in notes, claimed by them on the theory that it was a “profit sharing” transaction.</p> <p>Same — Unlawful Interest — Application — Judgment. Under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 6255, providing that judgment in an action on a usurious contract, shall be for the principal less twice the amount of interest paid, there can be no recovery where the value of lots, exacted as interest, when doubled, exceeded the principal.</p>