People's Building, Loan & Saving Ass'n v. Bessonette

• Decision Date: 07 December 1898
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals
• Parties: PEOPLE'S BUILDING, LOAN & SAVING ASS'N v. BESSONETTE et al.<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL>

48 S.W. 52

PEOPLE'S BUILDING, LOAN & SAVING ASS'N v. BESSONETTE et al.¹

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

December 7, 1898.

Appeal from district court, McLennan county; Marshall Surratt, Judge.

Action by the People's Building, Loan & Saving Association against W. T. Bessonette and others. From a judgment in favor of defendants, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Pruit & Smith, for appellant. L. W. Campbell and E. B. Baker, for appellees.

FISHER, C. J.

This suit was instituted by the appellant, who was plaintiff in the lower court, and a building and loan association of the state of New York, upon a promissory note or bond in the sum of $1,000, executed on the 29th day of November, 1892, by the appellees, William T. Bessonette and his wife, Pearl C. Bessonette, made payable at Geneva, state of New York, to plaintiff, the People's Building, Loan & Saving Association, on the maturity of 10 shares of the capital stock in plaintiff company of $100 each, subscribed for by said appellees prior to said date, for money loaned by plaintiff to said defendants on the usual building and loan plan; i. e. they subscribed for 15 shares of stock in plaintiff company, and thereby became shareholders therein, and borrowed $1,000, paying thereon in advance, as a premium, the sum of $100. Said bond draws interest from date at the rate of $4.17 per month, and premium thereon from date at the rate of $4.17 per month, both premium and interest payable monthly by the terms of said bond. Also, in said suit, plaintiff sought to foreclose a deed of trust executed by said defendants, of even date with said bond on the land in question, to secure the payment of said bond, both bond and deed of trust providing that should said defendants fail to pay the interest and premium on said bond, or the stock dues on said stock for the period of three months, then said bond should mature at once. The defendants pleaded that the contract was made payable in New York, to evade the usury laws of Texas, and that the contract was usurious; that defendants never owned but one certificate of stock in plaintiff company, and that all payments of money made by the defendants to plaintiff on the bond, as premium and interest and on said stock, should be credited on said bond; that the provisions of said bond and deed of trust for the payment of said stock dues, fines, and penalties, and the representations therein that the defendant Pearl C. Bessonette was a member of said association, were made for the fraudulent purpose of concealing usury in said contract. Plaintiff pleaded the laws of New York, showing the contract was not usurious in said...