Opinion ID: 1118515
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Violation of the Mini-Code

Text: The second issue is whether the contract is null and void as violating § 5-19-6 of the Mini-Code. Because the Mini-Code is a regulatory statute designed to protect the public, contracts made in derogation of its provisions are null, void, and therefore unenforceable. Derico v. Duncan, 410 So.2d 27 (Ala.1982). Section 5-19-6 provides: Any creditor, when extending credit with respect to a consumer credit sale, loan or lease other than open-end credit, shall at that time furnish to the debtor duplicate copies of all instruments executed by the debtor in connection with the transaction. The credit sale contract, loan note or lease shall contain the following statement in eight point type immediately above the space for the borrower's signature. CAUTIONIT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU THOROUGHLY READ THE CONTRACT BEFORE YOU SIGN IT. (Emphasis added.) The cautionary language of the contract prepared by CIT stated: CAUTIONIT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU THOROUGHLY READ THE CONTRACT BEFORE YOU SIGN IT. NOTICE: SEE OTHER SIDE FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION. The plaintiffs argue that because the CIT contract places additional language between the required cautionary language and the signature line, it violates § 5-19-6 and is therefore null and void. We disagree. The seven words added to the statutorily required warning, which direct the borrower's attention to important information on the reverse side of the one-page contract, do not violate § 5-19-6. The purpose for requiring the particular words provided in the statute and for prescribing their placement immediately above the space for the borrower's signature is to ensure that the borrower see them, read them, and follow their instruction by preventing the creditor from obscuring or burying the warning in the language of the contract. The additional language here includes only seven words, whose presence does not materially reduce the prominence of the cautionary language. Furthermore, because the additional language directs the borrower's attention to terms on the reverse side of the contract, it serves, rather than defeats, the purpose of the statute.