Case ID: johns_8/html/0218-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Per Curium.\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Morrell, qui tam, against Fuller.
    
      '^mnon '^mformsection *of the c. is.) the plaintiffmpst declare specially, and &e.e The*genecki/ng'mentiongfvén only to tlie borrower.
    
    THIS was an action of debt, brought by the plaintiff, as a common informer, on the second section of the act for usury. (Sess. 10. c. 13.)
    The declaration was as follows:
    e Albany county, to wit: John Morrell, who sues as well for the poor of the city of Schenectady, as for himself, complains of Jeremiah Fuller, in custody, &c. pf a plea, foat he render to him the said John, and to the said poor, 92 dollars, 8 cents and S mills, of lawful' money of the state of New-York, which he owes to and unjustly detains from them; for that whereas the said Jeremiah Fuller, after the 8th of February, 1787, to wit, on the 6th of August, 1808, was indebted to one Thomas Morrell, now deceased, in the sum of ninety-two dollars, eight cents and five mills, whereby an action had accrued to the said Thomas Morrell, by force of and according to the statute in such case made and provided, entitled, an act for preventing usury, passed the 8th February, 1787? to demand and have of the said Jeremiah, the said sum of 92 dollars, 8 cents and 5 mills, of lawful money as aforesaid; and the said John avers, that neither he the said Thomas, or his executors or administrators, hath not, nor hath either of them, within one year after tfe said 6th of August, 1808, in any wise prosecuted the said Jeremiah, for the recovery of the said sum of 92 dollars, 8 cents and 5 mills, and so the said John Morrell, who sues as well, &c. says, that the said Jeremiah, on the ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and nine, at the city of Albany aforesaid, in the county of Albany aforesaid, was indebted to the said John Morrell, and to the said poor, in the said sum of 92 dollars, 8 cents and 5 mills, of lawful money as aforesaid, whereby an action hath accrued to the said John Morrell, who sues as. aforesaid, to demand and have of the said Jeremiah, Fuller, for himself and the poor of the city aforesaid; the said sum of 92 dollars, 8 cents ánd 5 mills, of lawful money as aforesaid, according to the form of the act aforesaid, entitled, an act for preventing usury; yet the said Jeremiah, although often requested, &c.
    A verdict having been found for the plaintiff, a motion was made in arrest of judgment.
    The same cause ivas before the court, in February term last; (see vol. 7. p. 402.) but the point oh Which it Was now decided was not then considered by the court.
    
      J. B. Tates, for th'e defendant,
    contended, that the provisions of the statute, as to the manner of declaring, was confined to the person who had paid the money, and. is not given to the common informer, in the second section ; but that a common informer must state the usury or special matter, in his declaration.
    
      Foot, contra,
    insisted, that, the words in the second sec* tion, “ sue for and recover the same in manner aforesaid,” referred to all the previous'matters in the same section, as to the mode of suing, &c,
   Per Curium.

The statute of usury does not exempt the common informer from the necessity of declaring specially, and stating the Usury. The words are too general to justify him in stating the original grounds of the indebtedness of the defendant, in the same loose and general terms, as when the party aggrieved sues. The borrower has express authority for departing from the general rule in declaring, but it would not be proper to extend to the informer such indulgence, because of some, equivocal words in the statute,, which do not require that construction. What was said by the court in Cole v. Smith, (4 Johns. Rep. 193.) and again, in this very case, (7 Johns. Rep. 402.) is to this effect. The original offence must be specially set forth, so that the defendant may be apprized of it, and prepared to meet it. The motion its arrest of judgment must, therefore, be granted.