Condit v. . Baldwin’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 44 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 52 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is the essence of an usurious transaction, that there shall be an unlawful and corrupt intent, on the part of the lender, to take illegal interest, and so we must find, before we can pronounce the transaction to be usurious. ... In this case, there is nothing on the face of the contract, reserving more than legal interest. . . . The rule that when an agent commits a wrong in the transaction of the business of his principal, the principal is liable for the injury produced by such wrong, has no application to the present case. That rule cannot apply, where the agent, when committing the wrong, is bargaining on his own account, for his own private advantage exclusively, and this is known to the person with whom he is bargaining; it could only apply where the person dealt with is deceived or wronged, which in no sense is the present case. . . . When an act is done for another, by a person not assuming to act for himself, but for such other person, though without any precedent authority whatever, it becomes the act of the principal, if subsequently ratified by him. In that case, the principal is bound by the act, whether it be for his detriment or his advantage, and whether it be founded on contract or tort, to the same extent and with all the consequences as if done by previous authority. But when the agent did not assume to act for another, but acted for himself and for his own benefit, a subsequent ratification does not bind the principal.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 130 Cal. App. 632 - Vaughan v. Peoples Mortgage Co.

2. “That in construing the usury laws the uniform construction in England has been (and it is equally applicable here), that, to constitute usury, within the prohibitions of the law, there must be an intention knowingly to contract for or to take usurious interest. . . .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Call v. Palmer