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10 Johns. 140

Lawrence v. Knies

New York Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1813

New York Supreme Court · decided 1813-05-15

THIS was an action of debt on a bond. The cause was tried the Oneida circuit, in September, 1812, before Mr. Justice Thompson. The declaration was in the usual form.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1813-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently September 1870

4 state decisions

201813182018301840185018601870decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Per Curiam.

¶1The notice undertook to set forth specially the usurious contract. It was a substitute for a plea of usury, and in a notice, as well as in a plea, the contract must be correctly and truly stated, and proved as laid. A variance in a plea as well as in a declaration, between the contract as laid and the contract as proved, is fatal; and it is equally so, though the contract in either case would be usurious. The rule even requires the contract to he more precisely stated in a plea of usury in bar, than in a declaration in a qui lam suit, because the facts are within the defendant’s knowledge. (Hawk. tit. Usury, s. 24. Carlisle v. Frears, Cowp. 671. Tate v. Wellings, 3 Term Rep. 531. Hinton v. Roffey, 3 Mod. 35.) The omission, then, in this case, to state that it was parcel of the agreement that the plaintiff was to keep the cattle for one month, was fatal. The variance between the proof and the contract stated was, that in the one case they *145were sold and delivered at the time of the contract, and in the other, that they were sold and to be kept by the plaintiff for a month before delivery. Whether the keeping the cattle for a month would have aittred the corrupt nature of the contract is immaterial. The omis9mn ~o state that the defendant gave a mortgage, by way of collateral security, ai~d which was also made a ground of ob~ jection, does not seem to have been injurious, according to the case of Wade v. Wi1son. (1 East, 195.) Our opinion proceeds on the ground of the other variance.

¶2The nonsuit must, therefore, be set aside, and a new trial awarded, with costs to abide the event of the suit, and with liberty to the defendant to amend his notice on the usual terms.

¶3New trial granted.

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