[Download] "Leonard L. Bethke and Deon Bethke v. Idaho" by Supreme Court of Idaho No. 10345 ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Leonard L. Bethke and Deon Bethke v. Idaho
- Author : Supreme Court of Idaho No. 10345
- Release Date : January 11, 1969
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 73 KB
Description
Leonard Bethke and Deon Bethke, plaintiffs-appellants, commenced this action on December 27, 1965, charging that the respondent
Idaho Savings and Loan Association charged interest in excess of the then legal rate of 8% per annum[Footnote 1] on a note
which appellants executed in favor of respondent on February 12, 1962. The note was for a face amount of $12,000, payable
over a period of 240 months by monthly installments of $92.31, the first payment to be made on or before June 15, 1962. It
carried a stated interest rate of 6.9%, and the total interest charged over the twenty year term of the note was to be $10,154.40
(which, curiously enough, was $3.44 less than the amount called for by the respondent's amortization statement). In addition
to this nominal interest, respondent charged the appellants $51.73 additional interest on a "construction loan account," and
the respondent withheld $1,200 from the $12,000 of the loan as a "service" fee. This 10% service charge was withheld prior
to the performance of any services (although a number of services of a supervisory sort were, in fact, later rendered), and
it was the respondent's policy to deduct such amount automatically without regard to whether services actually would be performed
or not. The trial court found, as a factual matter, that the $1,200 service fee was not actually a legitimate service fee, but was
prepaid interest, because "the same was deducted prior to and regardless of whether any services were, in fact, performed."[Footnote
2] The lower court also concluded, however, that, under the law of Idaho as announced in Eagle Rock Corp. v. Idamont Hotel
Company[Footnote 3] the total interest charged over the entire term of the loan was not usurious. The appellants attack this
determination urging that the Eagle Rock Corp. case is distinguishable from this one, or that the formula used therein to
determine the "margin" over the nominal interest on the loan within which "hidden" interest charges might be incurred without
running afoul of the usury laws is incorrect.