7 Cow. 717 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1827
The judge erred in intimating to the jury, that they might legally presume the bonds of December, 1822, a renewal of, or connected with the usurious loan of 1821. There were no facts in the case which could legally warrant such a presumption. That Norris made an usurious loan to the defendant in 1821, for 370 dollars, was, perhaps, sufficiently established; but there was not a particle of evidence to connect the loan of 1822 with that transaction. It was for $579 ; nearly double the former loan. It was not, therefore, at all events, a mere renewal.of the former bond; and it is necessary to presume another loan added to the original sum.
'"'The defendant having taken a contract from Morris, for the purchase of the premises in question, was estopped from denying his title, or showing title in himself, unless he could succeed in proving the whole transaction to have been a cover for an usurious loan. In that he failed. The charge, therefore, was erroneous; and the verdict against evidence.
Mew trial granted.