65 Mo. App. 589 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1896
Plaintiff sued the defendants, Asher, as makers of a promissory note and the defendant lumber and hardware company as indorser thereof to plaintiffs. The defendants demurred to the plaintiff’s petition and the demurrer being overruled, they stood on the same and appealed to this court. The grounds of demurrer were: First. That the petition did not' state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; and, second, that the petition disclosed that the court had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the action. The point made on the last ground was that the amount of the note was $50, and that, under the statute, section 3318, Amended Laws, 1891, page 106, it is provided that the circuit court has no original jurisdiction in cases on promissory notes, unless the sum demanded, exclusive of interest and costs, shall exceed $50. The petition declares that the makers “promised for value received to pay to the order of the Grant City Lumber Company and Hardware Company, one year after-date of said note, the sum of $50, with interest at the rate of eight per cent per annum, payable annually, to become as principal and bear the same rate of interest,” etc. ’ The prayer of the petition was: “Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment against defendant for said sum of $50 and interest thereon at
It may well be doubted whether under our present statute, differing as it does from statutes of 1845 and 1855, interest- can be made a part of the principal. Interest is a creature of the statute and under section 5977, Eevised Statutes, 1889, it is provided that-“parties may contract in writing for the payment of interest upon interest; but the interest shall not be compounded oftener than once a year.” Formerly the statute authorized a contract that the interest should become a part of the principal, but not so now. So that it may reasonably be said that the statutory interest is only allowable as such. But, however this may be, we are satisfied that the object and intent of the statute was to fix the principal sum, upon which, as a foundation, the interest is built, as the test of the jurisdiction.