26 Wash. 115 | Wash. | 1901
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The respondent, a building and loan association, brought this action to foreclose a mortgage executed by one William Parr and one John Paterson to it to secure a loan of nine hundred dollars. It recovered a judgment and a decree of foreclosure for the amount demanded. The loan was made upon the usual terms and conditions common to loans made by such associations to their subscribers. The company required the applicants to subscribe for eighteen shares of its capital stoeh, of the par value of one hundred dollars each, and assign nine
In Hale v. Stenger, 22 Wash. 516, 699 (63 Pac. 554), and the subsequent cases of Hopkins v. Hale, 23 Wash. 790 (63 Pac. 1134), and United States Savings & Loan Co. v. Owens, 23 Wash. 790 (63 Pac. 1134), following that case, we held that the contract evidenced by a transaction of this kind was one of loan merely, entered into for the purpose of borrowing money by one of the parties and lending by the other; that the relation of corporation and stockholder was a mere fiction; and that payments made on account of the transaction, no "matter by what name called, should be treated as payments upon the loan, and credited to the satisfaction thereof. The rule of these cases is decisive of the case before us, and requires its reversal, unless, as was suggested at the hearing, its facts take it without the operation of the rule. The distinction sought to be made arises from the fact that the appellants are assignees of the original borrowers, and agreed, in their acceptance of the assignment, to perform the conditions of the contract according to its terms; the contention being that, although the original borrowers might have claimed
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded, with instructions to enter judgment for the appellants to the effect that the respondent take nothing by its action, with costs to the appellants.
Reavis, O. J., and White, Dunbar and Anders, JJ., concur.