16 Wis. 259 | Wis. | 1862
By the Court,
This is an action to foreclose a mortgage. The defense is, ti íat the note and mortgage are us a-rious and void. This defense the circuit judge thought was not sustained by the evidence. But upon this point, we have arrived at a different conclusion. In our opinion, the testimony in respect to the making of the loan, and the giving of the note and mortgage shows that the transaction was usurious. It is true that the evidence :iri the case is quite conflicting. Indeed it is, on some important points, so certainly and positively contradictory, that it is impossible to reconcile it upon any theory. But nevertheless the real facts attending the transaction can be sufficiently ascertained to authorize us in saying the loan was usurious. The appellant Carr and one Satterlee Warden, who, according to his own statement, acted as agent for the respondent in the negotiation of the loan,
Now upon the evidence, the circuit judge thought Warden must be considered as the agent of McFarland in making the loan. And this was most unquestionably Warden's own understanding of his relation to the parties. But the court held that this agency ceased when the $400 was placed in the hands of Carr, and that as this money then became his, Carr could
It was assumed, in the argument of the case by the counsel for the respondent, and the circuit judge adopts the same view, that McFarland had no knowledge of the arrangement by which Warden was to receive fifty dollars for making the loan, and that he never assented to this corrupt agreement. This assumption is gratuitous; at all events there is nothing in the case to support it, and the bill of exceptions purports to contain in substance all the testimony given at the-trial. We think, however, that the directly contrary inference must arise, and that from the evidence we must presume that he knew of the arrangement. Warden says, in effect, that he acted in this
It follows from this, that the judgment of the circuit court must be reversed, and the cause remanded with directions to dismiss the complaint.