by the Arkansas Supreme Court

“ It is not usury for one who sells a piece of property on credit, to contract for a higher price than he would have sold it at for cash. If the intention be, in fact, to sell on credit, he has the right to fix a price greater than the cash price, with legal interest added; but if the sale be really made on a cash estimate, and time be given to pay the same, and an amount is assumed to be paid greater than the cash price, with legal interest, would amount to, this is an agreement for forbearance that is usurious. ”

“ And in conclusion the court in that case said, "It may be difficult in some cases to draw the line of jurisdiction so as to determine whether the proceedings of a court are void or only erroneous. And in such cases every intendment should be favorable to a purchaser at a judicial sale. But the rights of all parties must be regarded. No principle is more vital to the administration of justice than that no man shall be condemned in his person or property without notice and an opportunity to make his defence." ”

“ Money, in this instance, is placed in the same class of adjuncts for building roads and highways that timber, stone, gravel or labor may be, and, as such, is not revenue, in the sense in which the word is used in the Constitution. The revenue there referred to was such as might be imposed for the support of the State Government, and the payment of its ordinary expenses.
There are many laws that provide for raising money by taxation that are not revenue laws. The law under which the city derives the power to tax the property within its limits, originated in the Senate. ”

“ One of the strongest arguments used in support of the jurisdiction of the court is, that as it must necessarily in a greater or less degree be the judge of its own jurisdiction, the fact that it has assumed and exercised such jurisdiction presupposes that it has passed its judgment in favor thereof, and that to hold a judge accountable for an error of judgment could not be sanctioned, as it would strike at the independence of the tribunal itself. ”

“ If the validity of every law is to depend upon the mere fact that the judiciary, if they had been legislating, would not have so arranged the law, we think that the Constitutional Convention reposed more confidence in the judicial department than sound discretion would warrant. ”

“ If the seller, whether he has quoted two prices to the purchaser or not, subsequently transfer the title documents to an individual or company which is engaged in the business of purchasing such documents, at a price which permits the transferee to obtain more than a return of 10% on its investment, then a question of fact arises as to whether the seller increased his cash price with the reasonable assurance that he could so discount the paper to such individual or finance company. If that reasonable assurance existed, then the transaction is in substance a loan, and may be attacked for usury. ”

“ The doing of justice then in a judicial sense is the performance towards another of whatever is due to him in virtue of a perfect and rigorous right, the execution of which he may demand by forcible means unless we satisfy him freely and with good will. While, on the other hand, the performance of duties due to another only in virtue of an imperfect or non-rigorous obligation which cannot be insisted on by violent methods, but the fulfilling of which is left to each man's honor and conscience, are comprehended under humanity, charity or benevolence in opposition to justice. ”

“ To construct roads and highways, money, in the opinion of the Legislature, was necessary. The complainant entertains a contrary opinion, and says, stop! this law, authorizing the opening of roads and highways, became unconstitutional the very moment that it provided for a tax to carry the law into full effect, because money constitutes revenue.
Labor produces money; the timber, stone and gravel used in the construction of the road may be converted into money. It requires money to procure the labor, timber, stone and gravel that may be used in the construction of the roads. ”

“ Judges should maintain the dignity of judicial office at all times, and avoid both impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in their professional and personal lives. They should aspire at all times to conduct that ensures the greatest possible public confidence in their independence, impartiality, integrity, and confidence. ”

“ In examining the question thus presented and supposed to be sustained, on one side, upon the basis assumed, we shall first inquire whether it be quite accurate to say that notice before judicial sentence is a law of nature, or at least of such universal application as seems to have been supposed, and whether indeed the common law has consecrated it as such by a strict conformity to its provisions. If we find it no law of nature at all, we shall be at full liberty to give effect to certain known rules of the common law, although inconsistent with this supposed law of nature. ”

“ The 39th section of the charter of the city of Little Rock, providing that "the inhabitants of the city are exempt from working upon any road beyond the limits of the city, and from paying any tax to procure laborers to work on the same," applies only to the inhabitants of the city, and not to non-resident property owners, and the exemption is of a personal nature. ”

“ If it be true that a judge is entitled to exercise a jurisdiction with impunity, because he himself has decided that he possessed it, then indeed to my mind all distinction of jurisdiction is broken down, and the only rule in future must be the will of the judge, or that he has jurisdiction because he has exercised it. ”

“ Because the law of notice looks clearly to the protection of private rights, while the law of the validity of judgments until reversed by appellate powers, whilst it also protects private rights, looks emphatically to the effective administration of justice, the sanctity of records, the protection of the ministers of justice that they may fearlessly discharge their duties, the stability of titles, the end of strife and the repose of society. ”

“ The law under consideration authorized the levy af a tax to build bridges and roads. The title of the act was "An act opening and regulating roads and highways." Can a bridge become a necessary part of a highway? If it can, then this is not a revenue law, it is a well settled principle of the law that whenever the Constitution grants a power, that it also grants the means by which it can be carried into effect. ”

“ It is well established by authority that the right to be heard and to defend life, liberty, property and reputation is a natural, inherent right of universal obligation; it is an inherent, indefeasible, constitutional right, and it is a common law right commencing with the earliest history, and never dispensed with in any government, where these rights are recognized or protected by the government ”

“ So that the decisions of the United States courts, when restricted to the particular cases under consideration may be all true, and yet in no wise controvert the position which I assume, which is, that in proceedings against the person, unless the court has first acquired jurisdiction both of the subject matter and the person, it can render no valid judgment by which either life, liberty, property or reputation can be affected. ”

“ Because there was then no human right for such a law to act upon, so far at least as temporal affairs were concerned; no tribunal to enforce its mandates; no individual to claim its protection. In a word, there was no place for its operation among men in their temporal relations towards each other. If then it was a law of nature at all, it was a dormant rule, which, in that condition of man's estate, could never have been derived by the light of reason from "its essential agreeableness to the constitution of human nature." ”

“ Where however the writ has no return, there are no facts upon which the judgment of the court can act, nothing to judge of, and therefore no judgment could be rendered. It would be like declaring a blank paper filed, a declaration, and assuming jurisdiction of the subject matter upon the strength of such judgment. Should the writ be lost and it was made to appear that one had issued, then in its absence we might presume in favor of service, but not where there was nothing to show that a writ issued. That would be basing a presumption upon a presumption ”

“ If a circuit court were to assume jurisdiction of a matter committed by law to the probate court exclusively, or the county court were to assume jurisdiction of a military officer, or if the probate court were to try and condemn a man for high treason, such proceedings would be all nullities, because there would be no foundation at all for such proceedings: no case had ever been presented to bring into action any judicial power of these Courts. ”

“ Unless we could suppose that the citizen is bound to take notice of the proceedings of courts, as they are of public laws, this amounts to saying that their rights may be passed upon and their property taken by judicial determination imheard and undefended by them, and if this rule is to prevail in civil proceedings, where the rights of property is involved (saving perhaps some additional constitutional protection) it is difficult to see why life, liberty and reputation may not also be sacrificed under it ”

“ To confer a right necessarily implies a right to use the means necessary to protect it; and when it is said that the citizen shall not be deprived of these rights but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land, the privilege to appear and defend such rights and for that purpose to have notice of the time when, the place where and the tribunal before which such trial is to be had necessarily follows ”

“ The court had already power over the defendant, if within reach of its process, and the process is the instrumentality by which this power can be rightfully exercised. If the power is exercised without the process it is wrongfully exercised, but not the less exercised because wrongfully exercised. It is still the exercise of judicial power and the record speaks the verity of its exercise as the sheriff's return of "Executed" speaks the verity of service of process, although there may have been in fact no service at all. ”

“ An imprisonment under a judgment can not be unlawful unless that judgment be an absolute nullity, and it is not a nullity if the court has a general jurisdiction of the subject although it be erroneous. ”

“ Burdick, 1 Hill R. 139, Bronson, J. said, "It is a cardinal principle in the administration of justice that no man can be condemned or divested of his rights until he has had the opportunity of being heard."
In Bustard vs. Gates and wife, 4 Dana R. 435, Robertson, C. J. said, "It is a general rule of the common law and of common sense, as well as of common justice, that a court has no jurisdiction to render a judgment against a person, who has had no notice whatever of the proceedings against him." ”

“ We are fully aware that there are highly respectable authorities, besides some of the previous decisions of this court, which are directly against the conclusion to which we have arrived on the main question; but, with due deference, we think all such have lost sight of the controling distinction between the judicial powers of superior and inferior courts of special and limited jurisdiction and the consequent paramount doctrine that the judgment of a superior court can never be a nullity to be entirely disregarded. ”

“ It is manifest at a glance that such a law of nature, as that supposed, could have had no operation even if it had existed before the establishment of the civil state and while man was in a state of nature. ”

“ The probate court being not only a court of record, but a constitutional court of fixed and permanent character invested with general jurisdiction and plenary power's over the matters committed by law to its peculiar cognizance, and open to superior review by appeal, is to be regarded as a superior court. ”

“ And it has never been considered a valid objection to a rule of public policy that it may produce disadvantages to an individual, for partial inconvenience is the inevitable consequence of every such rule: nevertheless the production of the general good authorizes their establishment. ”

“ I do not intend to be understood as assuming that every fact necessary th confer jurisdiction on a court of superior jurisdiction must affirmatively appear of record. In this I think the former decisions have gone too far. Every reasonable presumption in favor of the rightful exercise of jurisdiction ought to be indulged. But where the record (the writ and return being taken as part of it) repels the presumption of notice, as in case the writ should be returned "not found," and the record should state that the defendant made default, there no ground for presumption would exist ”