248 Pa. 458 | Pa. | 1915
Opinion by
The appellant was found guilty under an indictment charging him with having loaned a certain sum of money at a rate of interest exceeding six per cent, without having complied with the provision of Sec. 1 of the Act of
The general scheme of the act is, to create into a class persons absolutely undistinguishable from the entire body of citizenship by anything suggesting differentiation with respect to rights, privileges, immunities, or peculiarities, whether arising out of personal or business relations, and then to invest such class with a privilege denied to all not within the class, namely, the right to collect on money loaned a rate of interest in excess of that to which all others are confined. So much is beyond all question. The artifice adopted by which this result, with respect to the interest- charged, may be reached, is too thin a disguise to conceal from even the most unwary the real purpose of the act, and too transparent to mislead any one into supposing that the charge allowed by way of brokerage and examination fee is anything but usurious interest under another name. With the policy of the act we have no concern; but, in view of the argument made that it was passed in a proper exercise of the police power of the State, and therefore not open to condemnation as a special law, a word of comment is necessary. If there be anything in this act even faintly suggestive of a purpose to promote the good order, peace, health, protection, comfort, convenience or morals of the community, we have failed to discover it. It is little less than mockery to ascribe to the act the benevolent purpose to afford ampler borrowing facilities to a class of people who, it is claimed, because of their limited credit and more moderate demands with respect to loans, when these are required, could not .be sufficiently accommodated under previous existing conditions. Whether such persons stand in need of further
To return to the provisions of the act — what is this brokerage fee of one-tenth the amount loaned by one of this artificial class of lenders? As ordinarily understood brokerage is compensation paid to an intermediary who brings parties to a bargain. We know of no other meaning given the term. Here the member of this privileged class becomes at once lender and intermediary, by pure fiction, and is allowed a brokerage for no conceivable service rendered or to be rendered. For what service is a borrower to pay an examination fee of one dollar on each loan, whether of five dollars or fifty? Is there anything in the business of this licensed class that requires the making of other and further examination, with respect to the obligations that they accept from a borrower, than is usual and incident when money is loaned by banks or individuals not of this privilege class? Can any reason be suggested why either brokerage or examination fee should be allowed this class of money lenders and denied to others? If computed as additional interest charge — and it is this and nothing else — the result is.
In what we have said our purpose has been simply to show that the one certain effect of the act is to create a distinct class out of persons having in common, as between themselves, no peculiarities whether of person or business, or anything else, distinguishing them from any other- class, and investing the class thus artificially created with special and exclusive privilege with respect to interest charges on money loaned. From our study of the act we see no escape from the conclusions above expressed. We, therefore, hold that the act is violative of Sec. 7, of Article III, of the Constitution, in the respects indicated; and it is accordingly ordered that the judgment be reversed, and the appellant be discharged without day.