The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-07
B. AND L. CASE DECISIONS
PERTAIN TO MORTGAGES GIVEN OUT
sIDERs BEFORE THE 1898 LAW.
Where Contracts Were Made the
Claim of Usury Is Not Per-
mitted to stand.

A rehearing was granted yesterday by the
Supreme Court in the case of the Equitable
Loan and Investment Association against
Olivia j. Peed. which was decided by 1t last
December. The case of the Security Saw
ings and Loan Association against Joseph
j. Gilbert was reversed, as was the first case
named. In both cases the appellants were
corporations chartered under the laws of
Minnesota, and the action against Ebert
Was to foreclose a mortgage given for a
loan made before the act of 1893 relating
TO foreign building associations was passed.
The company had not complied with the
provisions of that act before the foreclos-
ure suit was brought, and the trial court
held that it could only take Judgment for
the amount of the loan, with interest at
per cent, less the amount paid by the bor-
ROVER as dues. premiums or fines, and that
1t could not enforce its building
contract. The opinion was by Judge Baker,
and he referred to the case of Mclaughlin
against the Citizens Building and Loan AS
ISOLATION, in which the court held that the
collection of premiums on loans TO members
of building associations by the associations
does not constitute usury. He then said:
This court, since the Mclaughlin case,
mas continued to recognize that such a
transaction between q borrowing MEM
Der on his society is not mere loan of
money, as between strangers. The
State may Xix the terms on which for
eign corporations may enter to do bust
ness. But If a foreign corporation Is per-
mitted TO enter, the validity of its con-
tracts with citizens of this State must be
determined by the rules that apply to the
nestle corporations. 1t will hardly do TO
say that a building and loan mortgage on
lands In Madison county is in its nature
nonusurious because given TO an Indi-
ana association of which the mortgageor
Is a member, and that the same mort
gage Is In its nature usurious If the asso-
citation is a foreign one.
THE act of 1888 declaring that it shall
be unlawful for a foreign corporation TO
do a building and loan business In this
State until it shall have deposited bonds,
ETC., must be read prospectively, If poss-
BILE. and must be read as not impairing
the obligation of existing contracts to be
constitutional To meet these requirements
the act must be construed to mean that
the business which may not lawfully be
done until the terms are complied with Is
the making of new contracts, the issuance
of new shares. the execution of new loans.
If a contract is valid when executed which
contemplates the lapse of several years
before all it's terms carried out ii must
be held TO remain valid and enforceable to
the end, under the laws in force at the
time of its execution, no matter what
changes the law has undergone In the life
time of the CONTRACT. As the contract was
abatement of the action existed, the find
ing Is contrary TO law"
The Peed case was to quiet a title against
2 mortgage which she had given to a for
eign building and loan association and the
case was reversed on the same opinion.
A rehearing of the appeal from a judg-
ment in favor of the Union Trust Company.
as receiver of the Mutual Life Insurance
Company, against Frank s. Huter was also
granted. The insurance company did
building and loan association business, as
we'll as an insurance business, and Huter
bought some of the stock and was a bor-
rover on ii. He claimed that he should be
given credit for the amount he had paid as
fines and dues and on his shares of stock.
The court held that the company had no
right to transact a building and loan assc-
citation business, but as it did SO the distri
button of funds must be governed by the
present situation, and not by the legal rights
of the company before 1t became insolvent.
The court held that Huter is entitled to
credit on the principal and interest on his
loan for all payments made on his stock,
except those payments made as stock dues.
and the balance of his claim must be paid
to the receiver. The stock dues are held
to be claim against the estate of the In
solvent corporation, to be paid equally with
the claims of nonborrowing members.
The court affirmed the sentence of Jesse
White, of Lafayette, who was convicted OF
the murder of a woman sixty-nine years
old. who lived in Lafayette. She lived in an
isolated part of the city and was found
one day last December with wounds on her
face and head which might have been
caused by Ratchet.