Bloom v. Levison

Headnote

Bloom v. Levison, 179 App. Div. 885 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment entered June 23, 1917, upon ■ an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, reversing a. judgment

in favor of defendants entered upon a dismissal of the complaint by the court on trial at Special Term and directing judgment in favor of plaintiff. The action was brought in equity to declare a promissory note, executed by the plaintiff, usurious and void, and to compel defendants to surrender and deliver up to the plaintiff his stocks and bonds pledged with them as collateral security for the payment of said note. The complaint declared in substance that on the 13th day of December, 1915, plaintiff was the owner of certain Russian, Hungarian and Chilean bonds and certain stock. On the 9th day of December, 1915, plaintiff applied to defendants for a loan of $1,000, and on the 13th day of December, 1915, a corrupt and usurious agreement was entered into whereby the defendants undertook to loan and advance to the plaintiff the sum of $800, reserving therefrom the sum of $75 over and above six per cent per annum on $800 as a usurious bonus, and in pursuance of the contract defendants actually advanced to plaintiff the sum of $725 and no more, and took the plaintiff’s promissory note, wherein he promised to pay to the defendants or their order $800, with interest at six per cent, in various installments, together with the stocks and bonds aforesaid as collateral security. The Appellate Division held that the note and the assignment of the securities as collateral thereto were null and void; that defendants by selling the securities wrongfully converted the same and that plaintiff was entitled to recover the proceeds with interest from the date of sale.