Brandon v. Garland

This is a suit for the penalty for a failure to enter partial payments upon the margin of the record of. a mortgage as provided by section 4897 of the Code of 1907. This is a penal statute, and, as repeatedly held by this court, must be strictly construed. The request to enter on the margin of the record was “partial payments made to you, by means of my employment to you, of $196.-65 paid you in the year 1921 by work.” The trial court tried the case without a jury, and saw and heard the witnesses, and in effect found that the plaintiff had not paid on the mortgage the sum of $196.65 as…