Meers v. Stevens

Citations

• 106 Ill. 549
• 1883 Ill. LEXIS 207

Syllabus

<p>1. Usury-—commissions, when usurious. Where a party loans money through his son, as his agent, and the agent takes four per cent of the principal as commissions, taking a note for the entire sum, bearing ten per cent interest, payable in one year, and at the end of the year, on application for an extension of time of payment, the lender refers the debtor to the son, who extends the time one year, for $100, which is paid to him, and a second extension is made in the same way with another son, acting as the lender’s agent, it “was held, on bill to foreclose the deed of trust securing the loan, that the four per cent taken as commissions, and the several pajunents for the extensions, made the transaction usurious, and that they should be credited as payments on the note, after deducting expenses of advertising for sale under the trust deed.</p> <p>2. Pitead in g—contract to be stated according to its legal effect. The rule at law is, that the party pleading a contract is only obliged to state it according to its legal effect. If the contract is made through an authorized agent, the principal is equally a party thereto as if he had made it in person, and in pleading it is proper to charge that the principal entered into the contract.</p> <p>3. Pdeading and evidence—variance. The rule in respect to a variance between the allegations in a pleading and the proof is substantially the same both at law and in equity.</p> <p>i. -An allegation in an answer that the complainant in a bill to foreclose a mortgage made an usurious agreement at the time of the loan to deduct four per cent of the loan as commissions, and afterward extended the time of payment in consideration of payments over and above the legal rate of interest expressed in the note, is sustained by proof showing he did so through his agent transacting the business for him, and such evidence is admissible.</p>