McCarthy v. First National Bank’s Empirical Analysis
223 U.S. 493 · 1912
Citation profile
28 federal appellate · 30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 78 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2001 · most notably Evans v. National Bank (1919), Haas v. Pittsburgh National Bank (1975)
28 federal appellate · 30 state decisions — followed in 12 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.
Relationships
Relies on Farmers' & Mechanics' National Bank v. Dearing · Barnet v. National Bank · Driesbach v. National Bank · McBroom v. Scottish Mortg Land Inv Co of New Mexico · Haseltine v. Central Bank of Springfield
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 78 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““* * * Banks may make ordinary loans and charge interest to be collected at the maturity of the note. But, as they usually reserve and deduct it in advance, by way of discount, the statute is framed so as to apply to cases where the interest is paid by the debtor as well as to those in which it is reserved by the bank. These deductions by way of discount are not treated as payments. They do not come out of the debtor’s pocket, though they lessen the amount which he receives when the loan is made, and when sued he may plead .usury and escape liability for the amount thus charged or retained. But, such reservation by the bank, not being a payment made by the debtor, he, of course, cannot avail himself of the right to maintain a suit given only to those who have paid interest. “But when the debtor actually makes a payment, as interest, and the bank knowingly receives and appropriates it as such, the usurious transaction is complete, the right of the one and the liability of the other is fixed, the cause of action arises, and the statute of limitations begins to run. There is no locus peni ten tioe. That privilege is only granted to those banks which, having charged usury, may, by a refusal to accept interest when tendered, show that they will not carry the illegal contract into execution, and thus escape the two-fold penalty.” 223 U.S. 499 -500, 32 S.Ct. 241 , 56 L.Ed. 526 . (Italics supplied.)”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“As to the defense [that a contract is usurious], there is no statute of limitations. Whenever sued the debtor may plead the usurious contract and be relieved from paying any interest whatsoever. But if he elects to avail himself of the cause of action, he must sue 'within two years from the time the usurious transaction occurred'”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.