Seargeant v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1945
Citation profile
4 district · 28 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently October 2000 · most notably Morrison v. Acton (1948), Britz v. Kinsvater (1960)
4 district · 28 state decisions
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 Stewart v. Schnepf · Hallenbeck v. Yuma County · Wood v. Phoenix-Tempe Stone Co.
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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) An unlawful intent; (2) the subject-matter must be money or money’s equivalent ; (3) a loan or forebearance; (4) the sum loaned must be absolutely, not contingently, repayable; and (5) there must be an exaction for the use of the loan of something in excess of what is allowed by law.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage““No person shall directly o-r indirectly take or receive in money, goods, or things in action, or in any other way, any greater sum or any greater value for the loan or forbearance of any money, goods, or things in action, than eight dollars on one hundred dollars for one year. Any person, contracting for, reserving or receiving, directly or indirectly, any greater sum or value, shall forfeit all interest.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““If an agreement can reasonably be construed as nonusurious, it should be so construed. The question of usury in loan transactions must be determined by construing all the papers executed in connection therewith, and not from isolated clauses and provisions therein. The courts, therefore, will not hold a contract to be in violation of the usury laws unless on a fair and reasonable construction of all of its terms, in view of the dealings of the parties, it is manifest that the intent of the parties was to engage in such a transaction as is forbidden by those laws. They have no right, however, to depart from the terms in which the contract is expressed to make legal what the parties have made ■unlawful. In determining whether a loan transaction is usurious, the courts will give effect to the intention of the parties, as reflected in the contract, but an unlawful intent will not be imputed as long as the acts of the parties admit of a construction which will render them lawful. If two reasonable constructions are possible, by one of which the contract will be legal and valid, while by the other it will be usurious and unlawful, the court will always adopt the former. In short, the general rule of interpretation and construction of such contracts may be said to be that the contract is not usurious when it may be explained on any other hypothesis.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.