Court Opinion

ID: 9827509
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:36:45.781177+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:32.512699
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellant contended that, in view of the provisions of the loan broker statute (article 6165a, Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St., enacted by. the 40th Legislature, chapter 17, First Called Session, page 30, Session Acts) she was entitled to recover four, times the amount of the alleged usurious interest collected by defendant. In denying this contention, we gave to the loan broker statute a construction in harmony with the general statute on the subject (article 5073).
Appellant also seeks to recover an attorney’s fee as provided in article 6165a, and, as this phase of the case was not discussed by us on original submission, appellee challenges the right of appellant to recover the same.
The statute in question regulates the business of a loan broker at great length, requiring those pursuing the business to execute a bond in the sum of $1,000 payable to the county judge of the county where the business is located, conditioned that the broker shall comply with all provisions of the act, and authorizing suit on the bond by any person injured or damaged by reason of its breach; also authorizing recovery of a reasonable attorney fee to be allowed by the court, not to exceed the sum of $50. Appel-lee contends that the attorney fee provisions of the statute is void, or at least that it has no application to the case. We sustain the latter contention; the suit not being up-. on the bond, we do not think appellant is entitled in any event to recover an attorney’s fee, and, in view of the language of the' statute, it is doubtful if the bond was intended to do more than protect against the violation of the regulatory provisions of the statute in respects, other than the collection of usurious interest, as that subject was at the time well regulated by other statutes. See title 79, arts. 5069 to 5074, R. S. 1925; however, we leave the point undecided, as the action is not upon the loan broker’s bond, and sustain the contention of appellee that an attorney’s fee, under .the circumstances, is not collectible. Appellee’s motion for rehearing is overruled.
Overruled.