Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/120

missotjbi valley life ins. co. v. kittle. 113 �The Missoubi Valley Life Insubanob Companï ». Kittlb �and others. �(Ovreuit Court, D. Nebraska. May, 1880. �UsuRY — Question op Fact. — Any agreement, device or shift to reserve or take more than the law permits for use of moneyloaned is usury, and whether by such means more than the legal rate of interest has been contracted for is a question of fact to be collected f rom the whole of the transaction as it passed between the parties. �Samb — AOREBMBNT FOR Insurancb ET Lbnder's Compant. — A trans- action whereby a party, in order to secure a loan of money, contracta to pay 12 per cent, per annum interest, the maximum rate allowed by law, and also as a part of the same transaction, and in consideration of such loan, agrees to take from the party loaning the money a policy of Insurance, and to pay premiums thereon, isusurious under the statute of Nebraska, �Samb— Patment of Insurance Premiums. — Payments made in such a case, under the name of premiums on th« Insurance policy, must be regarded as paid on the loan ; the insurauce contract, made as it was to cover usury, being held void. �J. M. Woolworth, for plaintiff. �E. Wakely, for defendant. �McCbaby, C. J. Bill in equity brouglit to foreclose a mort- gage upon certain real estate in Nebraska, executed by Rob- ert Kittle and wife to the plaintiff, to secure the payment of a certain proinissory note for $2,500. �The defence is that the note sued on is usurious. The legal rate of interest under the law of Nebraska is 12 per cent, per annum, and this rate is contracted for by the terms of the note. It is claimed by the defendants that, in addi- tion to the lawf ul interest thus provided for, a further consid- eration for the loan was exacted by the plaintiff under the cover of a transaction of insurance entered into between the plaintiff and defendant Robert Kittle. The plaintiff is a corporation organized under the laws of Kansas, and its pur- poses are declared by article 4 of its charter, among other thinga, to be "to make insurance upon the lives of individ- uals, * • * and to make such legal investments of ail moneys received as premiums for policies issued and from �v.2,no.2— 8 ����