Court Opinion

ID: 9845407
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:21:13.086808+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:06.200117
License: Public Domain

Hill, Justice,
dissenting.
In Hodges v. Community Loan &c. Corp., 234 Ga. 427 (216 SE2d 274) (1975), which the majority overrule, this court held (234 Ga. at 431): "... that the unambiguous language of Code Ann. § 25-9903 requires a holding that a contract made in violation of the Industrial Loan Act is null and void and that no recovery can be had of the principal in a suit for money had and received.” The "unambiguous language of Code Ann. § 25-9903” referred to in Hodges was: "Any loan contract made in violation of such Chapter shall be null and void.” (See 234 Ga. at 428).
At the time Hodges was decided, Code Ann. § 25-9903 read as follows (Ga L. 1955, pp. 431, 444): "Any person who shall make loans under the provisions of Chapter 25-3, the Georgia Industrial Loan Act, without first obtaining a license or who shall make a false statement under oath in an application for a license thereunder, or who shall do business while the license of such person under such Chapter is finally suspended or revoked, or who shall knowingly charge, contract for, receive and collect charges in excess of those permitted by such Chapter shall be punished as for a misdemeanor. Any loan contract made in violation of such Chapter shall be null and void.”
The Industrial Loan Act was amended in 1980 (Act No. 1415). It now reads in pertinent part as follows: "(a) Any person who shall make loans under the provisions of this Act without first obtaining a license or.who shall make a false statement under oath in an application for a license hereunder, or who shall do business while the license of such person under this Act is suspended or revoked, shall be punished as for a misdemeanor; and any contract made under the provisions of this Act by such person shall be null and void.”1
*33Another provision of the 1980 act provides as follows: "(g) Any lender duly licensed under this Act who shall knowingly and wilfully with intent to defraud a borrower make a contract in violation of this Act shall be punished as for a misdemeanor, and the contract so made shall be null and void.”
The result of the majority’s decision to overrule Hodges appears to be to allow a lender, who "knowingly and wilfully with intent to defraud a borrower make[s] a contract in violation of this Act”, to recover the principal amount of the loan in a suit for money had and received. When the problem arises the majority may (or may not) find that it would be against public policy to allow such a lender (who knowingly and wilfully defrauds a borrower) to recover the principal in a suit of any type, but then WHY OVERRULE HODGES when the legislature has enacted the law it wants to have in effect?
Because the General Assembly enacted the 1980 amendment (Act No. 1415) based upon Hodges, I would not overrule Hodges and create chaos and confusion in an area the legislature has solved. I therefore dissent to Division 1.

The words "or who shall knowingly charge, contract for, receive and collect charges in excess of those permitted by such Chapter” have been omitted from the ábove provision.