Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1908-03-27
Ten YEARS HELD BY SHARKS
For Decade Man Pays Usury at Rate
of 100 Per Cent Yearly.
ALLEGES CONSPIRACY EXISTS
started with Ten Dollar Loan, Pays
over Three Hundred Dollars
and stiI Held for over
Hundred.

Ten years in the clutches Of the loan
sharks on loan which began at $40, hav-
ing paid in usury over $500 and still
held for the payment of 1925 more usury
this is the lot OF Henry Jones, a clerk
who has brought suit against DR.. b.
Pribenow for the recovery of $500 with
interest and costs.
The petition in this action, which was
filed yesterday afternoon in the district
court by John o. Yeiser attorney for
Jones, alleges a conspiracy exists be-
tween several loan sharks and that this
plaintiff felt the crushing force of that
conspiracy when he was tossed from one
tentacle to the other of the octopus. He
says he was shifted back and forth from
one loan agent to another. borrowing and
paying so long that he could not tell how
much money he really did get. He knows,
however, that he paid over 5000 usury and
still owes, according to the astonishing
system of finance practiced by these
sharks, S125.5O.
OF all the shocking cases of this sort
revealed in the last few weeks, Mr. Yeiser
thinks this is the climax. His client he
Gays, paid money into the Golfers of
these men at the Outrageous rate" of
l2O per cent a year. Mr.. Yeiser feels con-
fident of getting justice for his client
just as he has for others in previous
cases. Only a few days ago one victim
whose case he took was not only released
from further obligation, but was actually
given $3.50 by the shark that held her in
his grasp. This shark was given an i'm
munity bath by the attorney as the only
means by which the settlement could be
effected and therefore escaped the lime
light
Text of IN
Here is the petition which Mr.. Yeiser
filed in court:
Plaintiff alleges that he is a clerk and
has been engaged in clerical work ever
since he was IL years of age; that over
seven years ago, when plaintiff was lg
years OF age, he borrowed $40 of one of
the chattel loan companies of Omaha en-
gaBeu IN usurous loans, tO-wit, the Omaha
Chattel Mortgage and Loan bank, and has
never since been able to get out of the
clutches of said usurious transaction; that
all OF the loan companies OF Omaha and
persons engaged in loaning money at usurl-
GUS rates have conspired together and are
In a conspiracy to shift their victim
debtors from one to the other in attempts
TO feign payments and as a pretense OF
closing usurious transactions and to exact
more by this method than they could in
dependently and more than the legal rate:
that plaintiff had been for five years pay
ing on said usurious transaction when
there was still about $3.50 due and owing
under said usurious contract and transac-
tion to the j. A. Hutton company and the
plaintiff was forced and compelled to bor-
row of the defendant $3.50 to pay Off said
usurious transaction; that for said purpose
and on or about the - day of October
1906 the plaintiff borrowed and received of
the defendant $50 in cash, being $3.50 over
the amount necessary to pay said loan and
the defendant contracted for, took, charged
and received as Interest," thereon 40 per
cent per annum, or more than the legal
rate and being usurious interest that plain
TIL paid upon said usurious contract Hast
mentioped and since the said last mentioned
date AGO, and the defendant still claims
under said contract now due and owing the
sum OF $3.50; that plaintiff gave the de-
fendant chattel mortgage on his house
hold goods signed jointly by the plaintiff
and his wife and also gave a salary as
signment to secure said amount; that on
March 70, 1903, plaintiff demanded of de-
tendant the cancellation of said chattel
mortgage and a return of said note and
salary assignment, but defendant refused
to concede said demand and threatens to
collect said claim and will cause the plain
tiff irreparable injury and damage unless
the relief prayed herein is granted; that the
plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law
in the resisting of said claims, defending
action at law because OF the fact that they
involve plaintiffs household goods and
salary, upon which he depends for the sup
port of his family that plaintiff has paid
to said chattel loan men in said conspiracy
over 800 in the said usurious demands
upon the said usurious transaction, but al
leges that the same were not voluntary
payments, but that the same were made
by coercion, through fear of losing his po-
sition II usury was pleaded or the matter
made otherwise public or by having served
notice upon his employers OF the said sal
airy assignments and claims, which involun-
tary action was known to the defendant;
that defendant took part in the said con-
spiracy during all the times alleged herein
before and had knowledge of said usurious
transactions.
Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment
against the plaintiff in the sum OF $500, with
interest and costs. and that the said note
of the plaintiff and his wife to the defend
ant and the chattel mortgage and salary
assignment to secure the same be cancelled
and held for naught; that defendant be en-
Joined from retaining said note and salary
assignment and from destroying the same
or transferring or delivering the same to
anyone but the plaintiff and for such other
relief as may be just and equitable and
the costs OF this action.