interest
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 308 U.S. 343 - Board of Com'rs of Jackson County Kan v. United States · 1939Most cited · 1,365 citing opinions
on taxes wrongfully collected
interest is not recovered according to a rigid theory of compensation for money withheld, but is given in response to considerations of fairness. It is denied when its exaction would be inequitable.
How the Supreme Court has restated “interest”
Each Supreme Court definition of “interest,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “interest”
Court decisions citing the 12 opinions that defined “interest” — 3,882 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 12 definitions, chronological · 1789–1952
- ORIGINAL
Interest is paid for the use or forbearance of money. But in the case before us, there could be no forbearance; because the plaintiff could not enforce the payment of the principal; nor could the defendants pay him, consistent with law.
wherever one man retains the money of another, against his declared will, the legal compensation, for the use of money, shall be charged and allowed
Interest is not allowable as a matter of law, except in cases of contract, or the unlawful detention of money. In cases of tort its allowance as damages rests in the discretion of the jury
in tort
Interest is the compensation allowed by law, or fixed by the parties, for the use or forbearance of money, or as damages for its detention.
interest a means of compensation
when a liability is incurred by wrong or default it is absolute. Interest is due as one of its incidentals, and inability to pay it no more excuses from that than it does from the principal amount.
the usual import of the term is the amount which one has contracted to pay for the use of borrowed money
The terms 'interest,' 'dividends,' and 'rents,' employed in the statute simply and without qualification or elaboration, were plainly used by Congress in their generic meanings, as broadly descriptive of certain kinds of 'income.' A receipt of interest is taxable as income whether paid in cash or by a credit.
The legislature may include compensation to the state for the increased costs of administration in the exaction for delay in paying taxes without thereby changing it from interest to penalty.
The 'usual import' of the word interest is 'the amount which one has contracted to pay for the use of borrowed money
The Act enables one not an enemy as defined in § 2 to recover any interest, right or title which he has in the property vested. The innocent stockholder may not have title to corporate assets, but he does [have] an interest which Congress has indicated should not be confiscated merely because some others who have like interests are enemies.
Trading with the Enemy Act § 9