Court Opinion

ID: 9716366
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:35:48.378815+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:44.420445
License: Public Domain

House, C. J.
(dissenting). I am unable to concur in the conclusions reached in the majority opinion. The maker of the note in question not merely promised to pay the principal sum of $10,000 with interest at 6 percent per annum but specifically agreed with the payee on the terms and times when that debt should be paid, viz.: “I promise to pay said principal sum and interest in monthly installments, as follows: One Hundred Eleven and 03/100 (111.03) Dollars one month from the date hereof and a like amount each and every month thereafter until said principal sum, with interest, is fully paid.” As the majority opinion correctly notes, citing Abbe v. Goodwin, 7 Conn. 377, 384, without a prepayment clause the maker of the note could not compel the holder to accept any payment before it became due. The prepayment privilege reserved was simply “the right to anticipate any or all of said final installments before any of the same become due and payable.” The installments, as expressly provided in the note, were in the amount of $111.03. The holder of the note’ was, accordingly, entitled to assume that she had a secured mortgage investment at 6 percent running for ten years from the date of the note and to be repaid in 120 fixed monthly installments, subject only to the privilege reserved by the maker to anticipate any or all of said final “installments” which were expressly stated to be in the amount of $111.03.
*183I cannot agree with the conclusion of the trial court that the terms agreed on for payment of the note were “unconscionable” and “bizarre,” and they were clearly not usurious. Nor can I concur with the result reached in the majority opinion which disregards the plain and specific provisions of the note regarding payment in stated installments of fixed amounts.