Court Opinion

ID: 9616485
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:47:17.397899+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:58.524317
License: Public Domain

Hall, Justice,
concurring.
This case involves the law on "Moneylenders and Pawnbrokers” and the construction of statutes enacted on this subject. "The small-loan acts in the various jurisdictions were enacted to mitigate rather than eradicate the evils incident to the business of lending money in small amounts to those who, having little to offer as security except their future earnings, or used and worn articles of little value to anyone other than the borrowers, are unable to obtain funds readily. The purpose of the acts is to afford the borrower the greatest practicable measure of protection, and since the acts are remedial in their nature they are to be given a liberal construction in order to effectuate the legislative purpose. In permitting small-loan companies to charge interest in excess of the normal commercial rate, the legislature has imposed a duty upon them to deal fairly with borrowers, and in making loans they must do so with scrupulous adherence to the terms of the statute . . . On the other hand, since the statutes are penal in character, and are intended to assist the borrower by encouraging legitimate capital, the lender is to be protected against any unreasonable extension of the small-loan statute, and a prohibition in the statute should not be extended beyond the fair import of its terms.” 54 AmJur2d 615, 616, Moneylenders and Pawnbrokers, § 13.
The appellee concedes that the loan contract is void under the Industrial Loan Act; however, it contends that it can nevertheless recover the balance of the loan princi*433pal in an action for money had and received. The answer is found in the nature of this action.
"While the action for money had and received is often referred to as an 'equitable action’ (Butts County v. Jackson Banking Co., 129 Ga. 801, 60 S. E. 149, 15 L. R. A. (N.S.) 567, 121 Am. St. R. 244; McCay v. Barber, 37 Ga. 423, 424; Whitehead v. Peck, 1 Ga. 140), it is nevertheless an action at law (Brightwell v. Oglethorpe Telephone Co., 176 Ga. 65, 166 S. E. 640); and even though the transaction out of which arises the right to an 'equitable action’ for money had and received may also give rise to a right of subrogation, the claimant may proceed upon his legal right for a recovery of the sums received by the defendant under such circumstances that in equity and good conscience the defendant ought not to retain it, and ex aequo et bono it belongs to the claimant.” Jasper School District v. Gormley, 184 Ga. 756, 760 (193 SE 248). The General Assembly has provided misdemeanor punishment for those who violate the provisions of the Industriar Loan Act. Code Ann. § 25-9903. It is axiomatic that one cannot engage in conduct which has been forbidden and declared criminal by the General Assembly and at the same time seek legal relief on the equitable theory of "ex aequo et bono,” i.e., injustice and fairness. This principle is well stated in an opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States: "We do not see on what ground a party, who says in his pleading that the money which he seeks to recover was paid out for the accomplishment of a purpose made an offense by the law, and who testifies and insists to the end of his suit that the contract on which he advanced his money was illegal, criminal, and void, can recover it back in a court whose duty it is to give effect to the law. . .” White v. Barber, 123 U. S. 392, 425.
The "law on this question is not simply what the judges of this Court think the law should be but what the General Assembly said it is.” Burkett v. State, 131 Ga. App. 177 (205 SE2d 496).