Case Name: The State vs. S. Mitchell
Court: Tennessee Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Tennessee
Decision Date: 1865-12
Citations: 2 Cold. 222
Docket Number: 
Parties: The State vs. S. Mitchell.
Judges: 
Reporter: Tennessee Reports
Volume: 42
Pages: 222–223

Head Matter:
The State vs. S. Mitchell.
Indictment. Descriptive words. Usury. The' words in the indictment were, that the defendant “did exact” usurious rates of interest. Held,, to be sufficiently comprehensive of the offense of usury.
EROM MACON.
The Court, in this case, on motion, quashed the indictment, at the March Term, 1861, Judge Samuel M. Fite, presiding. The State appealed.
Thos. H. Coldwell, Attorney General for the State.
John W. Head, for the defendant.

Opinion:
ShackeleoRD, J.,
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an indictment for usury, against the de fendant in error. The charge in the indictment is, the defendant unlawfully did exact and claim off of, and from, one John P. Mitchell, the sum of sixty-five dollars, for the loan, deliverance and use of sixty-five dollars, at terms usurious, &c.
The defendant moved to quash • the indictment, which motion was sustained by the Court. The Attorney General appealed. We think the Court erred in quashing the indictment. An offense is distinctly charged. The words "did exact," are sufficiently comprehensive.
The term implies, to enforce, to exact. Did exact, implies to enforce the payment. A more comprehensive word to express the illegal act of the usurer, could not be used.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded to the Circuit Court of Macon, for further' proceedings.