usury
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 27 U.S. 527 - The President Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States v. William Owens · 1829Most cited · 148 citing opinions
profit on loan, any disguise
A profit made, or loss imposed on the necessities of the borrower, whatever form, shape, or disguise it may assume where the treaty is for a loan, and the capital is to be returned at all events; has always been adjudged to be so much profit taken upon a loan; and to be a violation of those laws which limit the lender to a specified rate of interest.
How the Supreme Court has restated “usury”
Each Supreme Court definition of “usury,” 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 “usury”
Court decisions citing the 8 opinions that defined “usury” — 491 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 8 definitions, chronological · 1825–1868
- ORIGINAL
Usury is a mortal taint wherever it exists, and no subterfuge shall be permitted to conceal it from the eye of the law; this is the substance of all the cases, and they only vary as they follow the detours through which they have had to pursue the money lender.
a mortal taint
The rule cannot be doubted, that if the note [is] free from usury, in its origin, no subsequent usurious transactions respecting it, can affect it with the taint of usury... [under the Statute of Ann] 'All bonds, contracts, and assurances whatever, taken on an usurious contract,' [are] utterly void. Now the endorsement of a negotiable note creates several contracts; and if, in this case, it could give a right of action against Gaither, the drawer, it ought also to sustain an action against W. W. Corcorran & Co. the endorsers; but against them, it is perfectly clear that an action could not be maintained, for they were parties to the usurious loan. It follows, that their endorsement was a void act, and the property, and of consequence, the right of action, never passed to these plaintiffs.
effect on endorsement
The requisites to form an usurious transaction are three: 1. A loan either express or implied. 2. An understanding that the money lent shall or may be returned. 3. That a greater rate of interest than is allowed by the statute, shall be paid. The intent with which the act is done, is an important ingredient to constitute this offence.
three requisites
There must be a loan, and the taking of more than legal interest, or the forbearance of payment of a pre-existing debt, upon a contract for illegal interest, to constitute usury.
elements
It is essential to the nature of usury in Indiana, that a certain gain exceeding the legal rate of interest should accrue to the lender as a consideration for the loan. Where there is no loan there can be no usury. And where there is a loan, although the profit derived to the lender exceeds the legal rate, yet if that profit is contingent or uncertain, the contract, if bona fide and without any design to evade the statute, is not usurious.
To constitute usury, there must either be a loan and a taking of usurious interest, or the taking of more than legal interest for the forbearance of a debt or sum of money due
the better opinion is that the presumption is that such a contract is valid and not usurious, and that the burden to prove the contrary is upon the party who makes the charge.
presumption