Olin v. Bate

Citations

• 98 Ill. 53
• 1881 Ill. LEXIS 226

Syllabus

<p>1. Contract—of doubtful propriety, not enforcible in equity. An agreement to admit a person into a medical institute and assist in the graduation, and granting to him a diploma, in consideration of such person abandoning a fictitious name nearly the same as that of the other party, who was a member of the faculty, is of such doubtful propriety that equity will not lend its aid to' enforce it. The granting of diplomas to students in colleges ought not to be made the subject of private contracts with individual members of the faculty for personal advantage to themselves.</p> <p>2. Injunction—to prevent use of fictitious name similar to the name of complainant. A bill, by Henry Olin, who was a physician treating diseases of the eye and ear in the city of Chicago, charged that the defendant Bate had assumed the fictitious name of Andrew G. or A. G. Olin, and was engaged in practicing his profession in the same city, whose business was treating venereal diseases, and that in such name he advertised extensively, both in the newspapers and by publications and pamphlets largely circulated, by which means the complainant’s reputation was injured, many taking him for the defendant. It appeared that the defendant had been practicing in the city under the same name before the complainant came there. The bill.sought to enjoin the defendant from the use of the name Olin. On the hearing the bill was dismissed: Held, that the bill was properly dismissed, for want of equity.</p>