Baker

This is an appeal from a judgment against the plaintiffs in a suit for declaratory and injunctive relief against the foreclosure of a trust deed on the ground that the note secured thereby was executed in conflict with the usury law of California and void.

The plaintiffs were the owners of lots one and two, block four of Ocean Pier West in Long Beach, Los Angeles County. The complaint alleges that on December 12, 1924, they borrowed $16,200 from the Los Angeles Investment Securities Corporation for which they executed a promissory note for $20,000 payable January 1, 1926, with interest at eight per cent per annum secured by a trust deed on said property; that the premium represented by the difference between the amount of said loan and the principal sum of the promissory note, together with interest thereon, constitutes usury and renders the note and trust deed void to the extent of all interest and bonus in excess of said sum of $16,200, under the provisions of the California “Usury Law” (Stats. 1919, p. lxxxiii; Deering’s Gen. Laws 1923, Act 3757, p. 1384); that the California Title Insurance Company, which is the trustee named in said trust deed, threatens to foreclose said…