Heaps v. Dunham

Citations

• 95 Ill. 583
• 1880 Ill. LEXIS 213

Syllabus

<p>1. Conspiracy—defined. A conspiracy may be regarded, a combination of two or more persons, by a concerted action, to accomplish a criminal or unlawful purpose, or a purpose not in itself criminal by unlawful or criminal means.</p> <p>2. Where a person, arrested upon a charge of bastardy, makes a settlement in respect thereto, giving his notes for an amount agreed upon with the persons managing the prosecution, if the persons who instituted and were prosecuting the suit in behalf of the woman interested, honestly believed from her statements that the charge was true, and were thereby induced to act in the matter, they could not properly be charged with conspiring to extort money from the accused unlawfully, even though as a matter of fact the person so charged was not guilty of the oifence.</p> <p>3. Duress—what constitutes—in avoidance of a contract. It is not enough to establish duress, that a party was imprisoned at the time of making a promise or executing a contract in respect to the subject concerning which he had been arrested. Imprisonment, when lawful, is by no legal intendment an abridgement of the free and voluntary volition of the mind in the management of business transactions. To put the party under duress, the imprisonment must be unlawful, or there must be an abuse of or an oppression under lawful process or legal detention.</p> <p>4. So, where a person had been arrested upon a charge of bastardy, under a warrant regularly issued, and while under arrest but not actually in prison, or even under such restraint as would prevent him from going where he pleased, he executed his promissory notes in settlement of the subject matter of the charge, it was held, the party was under no such duress as would enable him to avoid the contract.</p> <p>5. Consideration—agreement not to prosecute for a crime. A promissory note given in settlement of a crime is without consideration, and can not> while it remains in the hands of the payee, be enforced in a court of