Page:Hare v. General Contract Purchase Corp., 220 Ark. 601 (1952).pdf/8

608 property. But Tillar insisted on taking title to the property and then selling it to Cleveland for $360. This Court held that Tillar had used the deed and contract of sale to accomplish usury; and the language of Chief Justice was quoted with approval:

"Yet it is apparent that if giving this form to the contract will afford a cover which conceals it from judicial investigation, the statute would become a dead letter. Courts, therefore, perceived the necessity for disregarding the form, and examining into the real nature, of the transaction. If that be in fact a loan, no shift or device will protect it."

The way the Finance Company operated in the case at bar is in many respects similar to the way Tillar operated in the reported case. Our cases disclose that finance companies have seized upon the "credit price rule" as a means of obtaining more than a 10% return upon what is in form a sale, but is in substance, a loan. It is obvious that if a prospective purchaser of a car, radio, refrigerator, etc., should borrow $1,000 directly from a finance company, then buy the article with the money and execute a one-year note to the finance company for $1,200, such transaction would be usurious. But the finance companies are accomplishing the same result by having dealers in cars, radios, refrigerators, etc., handle the sale in the first instance, and under the guise of a credit price, add an excessive charge which inures to the finance company, because the dealer is reasonably confident in advance of the sale that he can transfer the papers to the finance company for his own cash price. Thus, the finance company is getting the benefit of the increase. Nor is the increase purely for credit risk, because the car, radio, refrigerator, etc., is usually insured against normal hazards.

The result is that, by the simple expedient of providing forms and a rating book to the seller, and buying the conditional sales contract and note from him, the finance companies are receiving a usurious rate of interest. We cannot permit the constitutional mandate