59 Miss. 42 | Miss. | 1881
delivered the opinion of the court.
There is no substantial difference between the provisions of the Code of 1871, by which the case before us is to be governed, and those of the Act of June 25, 1822, which has been construed by our courts. Under the Code of 1871, the rate of interest which a creditor might lawfully take was greater, and usury forfeited only the excess overlegal interest, and not the whole interest as under the Laws of 1822. In Bond v. Jones, 8 S. & M. 368, it was held that money paid upon an usurious contract could be recovered back by suit at law, and also in equity where there were circumstances to give the court jurisdiction. In that case, payments of usurious interest were applied to the principal of the debt. In Newman v. Williams, 29 Miss. 212, it was held that the maker of a note, not itself affected with usury, could defend against an assignee who procured it by an usurious contract from the payee ; and in Coulter v. Robertson, 14 S. & M. 18, it was decided that where A was indebted to B, and by consent of all parties gave his note to C, to whom B was indebted on an usurious contract, in a suit by C on the note thus given, the defence of usury in the contract between B and C might be successfully interposed. In M'Alister v. Jerman, 32 Miss. 142, a subsequent purchaser of lands which had been mortgaged by the vendor to secure an usurious debt was permitted to interpose the defence against the enforcement of the debt, and to compel the creditor to appropriate payments, made by the debtor on account of usurious interest, to the principal of the debt.
Decree reversed.