Christopher Huber v. Janet Currie

Summary

The Supreme Court of Vermont affirmed the trial court's judgment in favor of plaintiff Christopher Huber on his breach-of-contract claim against defendants Janet Currie, 57 Sanford Street LLC, and Valley Stock Farm LLC. The court held that the trial court acted within its discretion in declining to consider defendants' usury defense because Currie failed to reassert that affirmative defense in her opposition to Huber's summary-judgment motion, resting only on the bare allegations in her answer. The court further held that a facially usurious contract does not compel a court to sua sponte impose the § 50(b) penalty limiting recovery to half the principal without interest; absent proper assertion of the usury defense, a court may enforce the contract up to the legal rate of interest. The court also declined to reach Currie's unclean-hands argument because it depended entirely on the unresolved usury question. However, the court agreed that the trial court erred in failing to rule on Currie's third-party claims against David Swanson and Canna Source Group LLC, and remanded for consideration of those claims.