Case Name: Kate Holmes Hopkins, as Executrix, v. Annie Otto, et al.
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1935-03-21
Citations: 118 Fla. 865
Docket Number: 
Parties: Kate Holmes Hopkins, as Executrix, v. Annie Otto, et al.
Judges: Whitfield, C. J., and Brown and Davis, J. J., concur.
Reporter: Florida Reports
Volume: 118
Pages: 865–866

Head Matter:
Kate Holmes Hopkins, as Executrix, v. Annie Otto, et al.
160 So. 203.
Division A.
Opinion Filed March 21, 1935.
William A. Lane and John J. Lindsey, for Appellant;
Botls & Field, for Appellees.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
This appeal is from a decree dismissing a suit to enforce a mortgage lien, the note and mortgage being for $1,500.00 due in three years with interest at 8% per annum payable semi-annually. Usury was a defense. A commission of $75.00 was paid from the amount of the note to an employee in the lender's office which the Chancellor in effect held was in the nature of a bonus to the lender. Only $1,425.00 was received by the borrower, even if the lender should not have paid a charge of $30.00 for title insurance on the mortgaged property.' Foreclosure was begun at the end of two years under the acceleration provision of the mortgage.
Without the charge of $30.00 for title insurance on the mortgaged property, the $75.00 bonus reserved together with the interest charged rendered the loan usurious.
In Wilson v. Connor, 106 Fla. 6, 142 So. 606, the first year's interest and the bonus were both reserved when the loan was made.
Whitfield, C. J., and Brown and Davis, J. J., concur.
Ellis, P. J., and Terrell and Buford, J. J., concur in the opinion and judgment.