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25 Ill. 218

Osborn v. McCowen

Illinois Supreme Court

Decided November 15, 1860

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1860-11-15

This was an action of assumpsit, commenced by the appellee against the appellant, in the Mason Circuit Court.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently January 1862

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1860-11-15

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Caton, C. J.

¶1If this plea is not good, then has the wit of man succeeded in devising a form of expression, which defeats the statute of usury, which a very high authority has said was impossible. But the plea is undoubtedly good. In form, the note is not usurious, as we have often decided. But there may be a thousand forms perfectly legal and fair on their face, which the intent of the parties may render in substance and in fact usurious. Where the form is fair, the intent of the parties must stamp upon it its true character.' When this note was given, it was not the expectation or the purpose of either party that it should be paid at maturity, but the note was made payable one day after date, for the mere purpose of securing to the payee the right to take twenty per cent, interest during the whole of the balance of the time that the payment should be forborne. All of this is admitted by the demurrer, and it presents so palpable a case of an attempt to evade the statute, that it will not even bear discussion. The plea was good, and the demurrer should have been overruled.

¶2The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded.

¶3Judgment reversed,.

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