Pope v. Dodson

Citations

• 58 Ill. 360

Syllabus

<p>1. A promise, simply, to make a gift, can not be enforced.</p> <p>2. Payment—what constitutes. The owner of a tract of land conveyed the same to another, but for the convenience of the grantor, though the grantee executed his note for the purchase money. Subsequently the grantor, still treating the land as his own, sold to a third person for a larger amount, to whom the first grantee executed a conveyance and received a note for the purchase money, which he assigned to his grantor and which the latter collected to his own use: Held, that, even regarding the first transaction as an actual sale, the second sale, connected with the fact that the original grantor received the proceeds thereof, in the absence of any special agreement, and it not appearing there were any other transactions between the parties, would operate as a payment of the note executed by the first grantee.</p> <p>3. Witness—credibility of. A witness can not be discredited simply on the ground of an erroneous statement. It is only where the statements of a witness are wilfully and corruptly false in regard to material facts, that the jury are authorized to discredit his entire testimoiy. So it is erroneous to instruct the jury, that if a witness “has sworn falsely in any material statement,” they may disregard the whole of his evidence except so far as corroborated.</p>