Court Opinion

ID: 9851697
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:17:59.420356+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:12.868534
License: Public Domain

Stolz, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur in the judgment of the majority opinion, but not in the personal expressions of the majority.
As noted in the majority opinion, an action for money had and received is based on equitable principles. The cases cited by the majority offer excellent examples of the application of the maxim that no one ought unjustly to enrich himself at the expense of another. No such situation exists in the case sub judice. Hobbiest Finance Corp. did not come into this court or the superior court with clean hands. It operated outside the laws of the State of Georgia and the United States of America in lending money at a usurious interest rate. It sought to enforce its contract, and claim principal, unpaid interest, accrued late charges and attorney fees. The defendants were put to *358the trouble and expense of retaining an attorney to defend and counterclaim. It was only after the defendants’ answer and counterclaim were filed that the complaint was amended to add a second count seeking recovery of the principal only but did not renounce the relief previously sought. Rather than condemn, I applaud the Supreme Court for the Hodges decision. At last there is a reason to stay within the law that even unscrupulous lenders can understand.
Evans, Judge.
Addendum.
Methinks there can be detected a modicum (perhaps trifle more than a modicum) of criticism directed toward "the author”1 (Judge Evans) in the specially concurring opinion.
The majority opinion (not just the author) does criticize the correctness of the Supreme Court’s decision in Hodges v. Community Loan &c. Corp., 234 Ga. 427 (a 4 to 3 decision) wherein it held that the lender not only forfeited interest for overcharging as to interest in a paper executed under the Industrial Loan Act, but forfeited principal as well. If you lend me $100, and I admit it, I will always owe you the principal amount of $100 until I pay you or until you release me! If I am in possession of your $100, and there is no dispute but that it is your money, and not mine, then, as has been held since time immemorial, you are entitled to recover the principal, even though perhaps for some reason you may not be entitled to recover interest or attorney .fees, or a lien on the property. Such actions are now called "actions for money had and received” and proceed on the theory that "in equity and good conscience” the defendant is not entitled to retain money that belongs to another. But the Supreme Court turned this squarely around in Hodges, supra, and held that even the principal is forfeited if a usurious note is executed.
Now let us examine the language of the special *359concurrence in pertinent part: "I concur in the judgment of the majority opinion, but not in the personal expressions of its author2 . . . Rather than condemn, I applaud the Supreme Court for the Hodges decision. At last there is a reason to stay within the law that even unscrupulous lenders can understand.” (Emphasis supplied.)
There is no construction to be placed on this language except it intends criticism of the majority view of the Third Division of the Court of Appeals. Why call this the "personal expression of its author” when two of our three members have agreed on this language?
We therefore take this opportunity and privilege of replying. The majority opinion in this case, is indeed critical of the opinion (4 to 3) by a majority of the Supreme Court. They have the last say-so; we are bound by and must accede to their decisions, but there is no law that makes us like their decisions or prevents our disagreements therewith.
Suffice to say that we reiterate our criticism of the correctness of Hodges v. Community Loan &c. Corp., 234 Ga. 427, supra.
The special concurrence completely misunderstands the principle of an action for "money had and received.” While time and again it has been stated that this principle is premised on the theory that one is not entitled to retain money which "in equity and good conscience” belongs to another (Rhodes &c. Co. v. Jenkins, 2 Ga. App. 475 (1) (58 SE 897)), that does not mean that an equitable action must be brought to recover the money, and the Rhodes case, supra, even holds that such action may be brought in the Justice of the Peace Courts. It says the plaintiff did not come into court with "clean hands.” Surely it is well known that the term "clean hands” is used only in equity cases. Code § 37-104; 182 Ga. 333, 335 (2); 216 Ga. 509, 510. Hodges, supra, was not an equity case, but was an action at law. See Jasper School District v. Gormley, 57 Ga. App. 537, 544 (2) (196 SE 232).
*360Finally, to illustrate how wrong is the reasoning of the special concurrence in this matter, let us look at this language: "At last there is a reason to stay within the law that even unscrupulous lenders can understand.” (Emphasis supplied.) This term implies that the lender who parts with his money, and contracts for too much interest, is unscrupulous but what of that fellow who borrows money, and when it becomes due, not only fails to pay the interest (which is shown to be usurious) but takes advantage of this strange ruling of the Supreme Court to also keep the principal and not repay it even though he has no semblance of right to keep it!
Who is the more unscrupulous — the lender who parted with his money under a promise by the debtor that usurious interest would beipaid — tor that miserable debtor who not only refuses to pay interest, but keeps the principal which "in equity and good conscience” is not his?
An ancient English anagram states: "The law doth punish man or woman Who steals the goose upon the common — Yet turns that greater felon loose, Who steals the common from the goose.”

Deen, P. J., concurs.

The original special concurrence was directed against "the author,” but now has been changed to "the majority.”

The original special concurrence was directed against "the author,” but now has been changed to "the majority.”