Unless there is an express contract in writing fixing a different rate or the interest rate clearly appears on the bill, statement, or invoice, interest is payable on all moneys at the Category F rate of interest as established in § 54-3-16 after they become due on any instrument of writing, and on moneys lent, or due on any settlement of accounts, from the day on which the balance is ascertained, and on moneys received to the use of another and detained from that other. Any interest rate appearing on a bill, statement, or invoice may not exceed eighteen percent.
S.D. Codified Laws § 54-3-5
Interest on moneys after they become due--Exception for express contracts or interest rate on bill, statement, or invoice--Limitation on interest rate
Applied in 19 court decisions — leading case Lien v. Lien (1979)
Most recently applied in Dziadek v. Charter Oak Fire Insurance Co. (September 2016)
Source: SDC 1939, § 38.0109; SL 1972, ch 257; SL 1975, ch 297; SL 1980, ch 336, § 2; SL 1981, ch 348; SL 1984, ch 319, § 35; SL 1994, ch 366, § 2; SL 2005, ch 255, § 1.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.