Gokey v. Knapp
Supreme Court of Iowa
Appeal from Floyd Cvreuit Court. This suit was brought to cancel of record two mortgages executed by plaintiff to defendant upon a certain piece of land in Floyd county. The defendant denied the allegations of the petition, and by cross-petition prayed for a foreclosure of the mortgages. The plaintiff for a reply to the cross-petition averred that the mortgages were usurious. The court made the following findings of fact and law.
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Appeal from Floyd Cvreuit Court. This suit was brought to cancel of record two mortgages executed by plaintiff to defendant upon a certain piece of land in Floyd county. The defendant denied the allegations of the petition, and by cross-petition prayed for a foreclosure of the mortgages. The plaintiff for a reply to the cross-petition averred that the mortgages were usurious. The court made the following findings of fact and law. “In the latter part of June, or the month of July, 1873, plaintiff, Gokey, applied to one Danforth for a loan of money to pay off a mortgage on Gokey’s land held by…
1Opinion of the CourtAdams, J.
Although Danforth may have been the agent of Knapp for the purpose of loaning the money, and may have contracted for more than ten per cent interest, yet the loan was no.t necessarily usurious. An authority, to loan money at a legal rate of interest does not include by implication the authority to loan it at an illegal rate. An authority to violate the law will never be presumed.
When Danforth exacted, in addition to the ten per cent interest, which was embraced in the note, something for the benefit of himself, he went outside of the legitimate purposes of his agency; and as Knapp did not…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Condit v. . BaldwinNew York Court of Appeals · 1860
- Rogers v. BuckinghamSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1865
3Cited by14 opinions
- Call v. PalmerSupreme Court of the United States · 1885
- Jordan v. HumphreySupreme Court of Minnesota · 1884
- Acheson v. ChaseSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1881
- Hopkins v. Hawkeye InsuranceSupreme Court of Iowa · 1881
- France v. MunroSupreme Court of Iowa · 1908
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