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3 Watts & Serg. 271

Koons v. Miller

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided May 15, 1842

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1842-05-15

. Isaac Koons & Co. against Adam Miller. This was an action founded upon a book account, and the only question was, whether the plaintiff was entitled to recover interest. The court below thus stated the case and charged the jury:— Banks, President. “ The plaintiffs were merchants doing business in Philadelphia, at the times the defendant contracted with them the debt now claimed. The only question now made is as to the interest on the account.

Decided 1842-05-15

Per Curiam.

¶1The practice of the merchants of Philadelphia to charge interest on their accounts after six months, has endured for more than half a century; and it is so universal that their customers deal with them avowedly on the basis of it, so that it necessarily enters into the contract as a part of it. It is so notorious as to be recognised abroad; as may be seen in Bispham v. Pollock, (1 M’Clean’s Rep. 411), in which the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Indiana, left its existence, as the existence of every foreign law must be left, to the jury. Its existence is so notorious at home, however, that we are bound to take notice of it as a part of our law. That it has not sooner been directly recognised by judicial decision, has arisen from the fact that it has not before been thought a subject of dispute; but the principle is as well known and observed in the collection of merchants’ debts, as any other custom peculiar to the state.

¶2Judgment affirmed.

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