64 Ala. 250 | Ala. | 1879
When this case was in this court at a former term (59 Ala. 179), the recital of the evidence in the bill of exceptions showed “ that neither Miss Killen, nor her husband, the plaintiff, knew any thing of usury, or participated in any manner in the original usurious transaction. The
The policy of laws for the suppression of usury has been frequently assailed, but without lasting success.- The experiment of abolishing all restraints on the rate of interest was once made in this State ; but the result was so disastrous, it was soon abandoned. Most men are hopeful of future success, and, to relieve a pressing want, they will promise more for present use of money, than it is worth, or than they are able to pay. Hence, the policy of usury laws. Legislators refuse to strike them from the statute-books, and courts enforce them in their integrity. They impart a taint to all transactions into w'kicli they enter, which can be purged, or eliminated, only in one of two ways: either by reformation of the contract, rejecting all usurious taint, or by a renewal of the note or contract, after it has passed into the hands of an innocent purchaser, without notice of the usury. Simple renewals of the evidence of a debt, infected with usury, stand for nothing. — Jackson v. Jones, 13 Ala. 121; Pearson v. Bailey, 23 Ala. 537; Payne v. Trezevant, 2 Bay (S. C.), 23; Vickery v. Dickson, 35 Barb. 96; Garth v. Cooper, 12 Iowa, 364; Chadbourne v. Watts, 10 Mass. 121.
In Torrey v. Grant, 10 Sm. & Mar. 89, the court (C. J. Sharkey) ruled, that a note, or other security, given in renewal of a usurious note, was usurious; and that an indorser of a note, who takes it with notice that it is tainted with usury, takes it subject to that defect. So, in all the cases, which hold that an indorsee or transferree of usurious paper can recover, it will be found either that the maker, by some act of his, had, estopped himself from setting up the defense of usury, or that the indorsee became the owner of the security without notice of the usury. In this State, which allows all defenses to non
The City Court erred in the charge given at the request of the plaintiff. Reversed and remanded.