Court Won’t Overturn NFL Player’s Loan Debt

(CN) - NFL cornerback Jonathan Wade owes $171,000 for not paying back a loan, the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled.

The St. Louis Rams drafted Wade in 2007, and the cornerback later played with Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals in 2010. Currently a free agent, Wade appeared for the Miami Dolphins briefly this season.

Wade signed a $48,500 promissory note with AllStar Capital in early 2008, and the company sued him later that year for breach of contract and conversion, claiming that he had defaulted on the loan.

One of the terms of the loan required Wade to pay 76 percent interest on the balance of the loan after he paid $1,500 a month for eight months.

A St. Louis Circuit Court judge ordered Wade to pay $121,753 in principal and interest, plus $50,000 in attorneys' fees and costs.

On appeal, Wade claimed that AllStar had not proven its corporate existence, but the St. Louis-based appeals court Eastern District Missouri Court of Appeals found otherwise.

"By introducing testimony of its corporate existence and documentation from the Nevada secretary of state's office, AllStar adduced sufficient evidence from which the trial court could conclude that AllStar was a duly organized corporation under the laws of Nevada," Judge Roy Richter wrote for a three-member panel.

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