Greenleaf v. Kellogg

Decided October 15, 1803

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1803-10-15

<p>Upon a note payable in eight years, with interest payable annually, an action lie* for the interest before the principal is payable.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1803-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently December 1943

14 state decisions — followed in 10 states

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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¶1In such action, interest is allowed upon each year’s interest unpaid.

¶2The defendant’s counsel stated that the defence relied on was, that no action is maintainable on such a note as this until after the principal sum should fall due. But the Court were decidedly of opinion that such a defence was insufficient, and gave judgment for the interest in arrear, and for the interest of each year’s interest, from the day it was payable to the time of rendering the judgment. (b)

¶3 This is the case referred to by the Chief Justice in Tucker vs Randall, ante, p. 284.