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66 Ark. 77

Sawyer v. Dickson

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided December 24, 1898

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1898-12-24

Will P. Feazel, Judge. It was error to cancel the deed and notes as to all the defendants, because two of them, though properly summoned, have made default. The taking of interest in advance is not usury. 2 Wm. Be. 791, 792; 2 Cow. 664, 675; 15 Johns. 162, 168; 4 Wend. 652, 653; 30 Hun, 201, 203, 204; 4 Scam. (111.) 21; 7 Rob. (La.) 539, 541; 110 111: 390, 394; 30 111.490,498; 110 111. 235; 132 111. 550; 34 111. 110; 7 Has. 405; 12 Pick. 586; 60 Ark. 288.

Relies on Pipkin v. Williams · Bank of Harrison v. Gibson · Tenny v. Porter

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1898-12-24

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently May 2022

2 district · 9 state decisions

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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.

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Hughes, J.

¶1This is an appeal from a decree in chancery, in which the appellees, the plaintiffs below, sought foreclosure of a deed of trust given to secure notes therein described, and to have the land conveyed by the deed sold for payment of the notes. The defense was usury. The answer prayed for cancellation of the notes and deed of trust. The court found for appellees, and decreed cancellation of the notes and deed of trust, from which the ease comes here up&n appeal.

¶2The evidence discloses that the notes secured by the trust deed were dated and made payable at Kansas City, Missouri. The trust deed was given upon lands in Arkansas, and was acknowledged in the state of Arkansas. There was no proof of the statutes of the state of Missouri upon usury. If the contract was good in Missouri, it is good here. We do not take judicial notice of the statutes of another state.

¶3The court will not presume a contract to be usurious. To maintain a plea of usury, it must be sustained by clear proof. Holt v. Kirby, 57 Ark. 250. The rights of parties to contracts made and to be performed in another state will be adjudicated by the courts of this state precisely as they would be adjudicated in the courts of the state where the contracts were made and to be performed. Parsons Oil Co. v. Boyett, 44 Ark. 230; Matthews v. Paine, 47 Ark. 54; Bank of Harrison v. Gibson, 60 Ark. 269; Tenny v. Porter, 61 Ark. 329.

¶4Outside of the fatal objection above stated, we think the proof does not show that the notes were usurious.

¶5Reversed and remanded, with directions to the court below to render a decree for the amount due upon the notes, including interest, and for foreclosure of the trust deed.

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