In Creative Ventures, LLC v. Jim Ward & Associates (2011) 195 Cal.App.4th 1430, two limited liability companies borrowed money from a corporation that was not licensed as a finance lender, agreeing on an interest rate of eight percent and a loan fee of six percent, which total exceeded the applicable nonusurious interest rate of 10 percent. The corporation then solicited investors to fund the loans and assigned the investors their fractional interests in the investments. (Creative Ventures, supra, 195 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1436-1437, 1441.) The companies sued the corporation and the investors for usury. The trial court found the corporation had committed usury, but determined that the investors, as holders in due course of their fractional interests who did not receive any part of the loans fees, could not be liable for usury. The appellate court reversed as to the investors. Rejecting the characterization of the investors as holders in due course, the court found they were assignees, whose rights derived from those of the assignor: "They took their fractional interests subject to any equities and defenses existing in favor of plaintiffs at the time of assignment." (Id. at p. 1448.)