Casserleigh v. Wood

Citations

• 119 F. 308
• 56 C.C.A. 212
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4670

Syllabus

<p>1. Contracts—Consideration.</p> <p>Whether a contract rests upon a valuable consideration or otherwise must be determined by conditions as they exist when it is made; and, if the promisor supposes that the thing which he seeks to obtain and promises to pay for will be beneficial to him, he cannot avoid his promise on the strength of a subsequent discovery that it was really nonessential, or of no value.</p> <p>3. Federal Courts—Following State Decisions—Application oe Statute to Particular Facts.</p> <p>While the federal court is hound by the construction placed by the highest court of a state upon a local statute, yet, when it becomes necessary to apply the statute, as construed by the local court, to a particular contract, and determine, upon a consideration of all of the provisions of the contract, whether it is violative of the statute as it has been construed, a federal court is entitled to express an independent judgment, the question involved being one of general law, rather than of statutory construction.</p> <p>8. Specific Performance—Contracts against Public Policy.</p> <p>Complainant contracted with defendant to furnish evidence deemed essential to establish the defendant’s interest as an heir in certain mining property, and to commence litigation, if necessary, to recover such interest. The agreement contemplated that he would produce the witnesses to establish the case, and that, in effect, he should have full direction and control of the litigation through attorneys whom he individually was to select and employ, and that he was “to be at all cost in the matter,” in consideration of which the defendant contracted to give the complainant two-thirds of all his interest recovered through law, if legal proceedings were commenced. (Heidi that, even if the contract in question was not voidable under the local statute against maintenance, being, as it would seem, a contract entered into for the purpose of gambling in litigation, yet that such an agreement w