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42 N.C. 146

Rasberry v. . Jones

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided December 5, 1850

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1850-12-05

This was a bill, filed in 1848, by the plaintiff, John W. Rasberry, against the .defendants, Owen W. Jones and William A. Brant, and set forth in substance : That the plaintiff sometime in the year 1S47, was indebted to the defendant, Owen H. Jones, in several promissory notes* amounting, with-interest, on the 7th of December in that year, to $280 27 cents ; that being very much embarrassed and unable to meet the payment of these debts at that time, the said defendant…

Decided 1850-12-05

Pearson, J.

¶1 The demurrer cannot be sustained upon the ground taken by the defendants’ counsel in this Court, viz: Multifariousness. The bill is not defective in this particular. It allegcsthat the defendant, Jones, is the beneficial owner ofall the judgments, and that the other defendant Brant, was a mere naked holder of the legal title in one of the judgments for the ease of the other defendant, the legal t.ile being separated from the use, merely as a trick or cover. The same usury is alleged to affect all of the judgments, and in fact the whole was but one transaction,

¶2 This Court does not favor the “splitting up of suits,” unless there are several persons having distinct rights, and prejudice may result from the fact of the investigation being made too complicated ; but in this case it is a manifest saving of time and money, to try both causes of action together, and thereby avoid travelling twice over the same ground.

¶3 But the bill is defective in a particular, which was not noticed on the argument. The bill submits to pay, the “amount justly due, with lawful interest thereon, after the said' 1th of December 1848.” Now the bill alleges that the transactiondook place on the 1th of ■ December *149 1847, and the defendant, Jones, was to forbear, uutil the 7th of December 1848, for the usurious interest of 25 per cent, which was at the time secured by notes, and judgments, and as the plaintiff seeks to repudiate the agree* ment, so far as the 25 per cent is concerned, he must also give up the year’s credit, and ought to have submitted to pay lawful interest from the 7th ©f December 1847, when the money was lent and the forbearance promised.

¶4 This was no doubt a mere inadvertence in drawing the bill, and we looked into the decretal order, to see, if the defect was not corrected, but there, instead of amounts and dates particularly stated, we find a loose general reference, to the admissions of the bill, and, instead of an order overruling the demurrer, and dissolving the injunction as to the principal money, with interest from the 7th of December 1847, “The Court overrules all the causes assigned for demurrer, except that relating to the extent Of the injunction.” This latter ground was no cause of demurrer, but was a matter for consideration upon the motion to dissolve.

¶5 The decretal order must be reversed, and this opinion certified to the Court below, that the proper orders may be ehtered ; we think neither party entitled to costs.

¶6 Per Curiam. Ordered tobe certified accordingly.

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