Morgan v. King

Citations

• 128 Miss. 401
• 91 So. 30

Syllabus

<p>1. Evidence. Account offered to establish indebtedness not excluded because not inherited.</p> <p>An account offered in evidence to establish an indebtedness should not be excluded because some of the items therein are not itemized; such defect not going to the competency of the account as evidence, but to its value. •</p> <p>2. Usury. Statute strictly construed; creditor must be shown to have either contracted for or received •interest in violation of the statute, which is for the jury where the evidence leaves issue in doubt.</p> <p>Chapter 299, Caws of 1912 (section 2075, Hemingway’s Code), which provides for the forfeiture of both principal and interest if more than twenty per cent per annum is charged, is highly penal, and must be strictly construed. And even though the evidence shows that the creditor has charged the debtor in his account more than twenty per cent interest, this is insufficient to show a violation of the statute, for the evidence must go further, and show that the creditor either “contracted for or received” more than twenty per cent; and. if the evidence leaves this issue in doubt, it is a question for the jury.</p> <p>3. Frauds, Statute oE. Contract under which goods áre delivered to one person on credit extended to another not within statute; whether credit zvas originally extended in person sought to be charged is for jziry on conflicting evidence.</p> <p>Where credit was originally extended to the party sought to be charged, and not to the party to whom the goods were delivered and used, such contract does not come within the provision of that clause of the statute of frauds, which provides that no action shall be brought whereby to charge a defendant upon a promise to answer for the debt of another, unless such promise be in writing, signed by the party sought to be charged, because in such case it is not the debt of another, but the debt of the party sought to be charged And if the evidence is conflicting as to whether the credit was