Portner v. Kirschner

Citations

• 169 Pa. 472
• 32 A. 442
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1116

Syllabus

<p>Principal and surely — Illegal contract — Embezzlement—Compounding felony.</p> <p>An embezzler is under a legal and moral obligation to repay the person whose money he has wrongfully appropriated to Ms own use, and it is, therefore, not against public policy nor unlawful for him to give security for its return at a future day.</p> <p>• The sureties on a bond given to secure the return of money embezzled by the principal in the bond, cannot allege that the bond was given for an illegal consideration where there is no evidence that criminal proceedings had been stifled, or that fraud or coercion had been practiced upon the principal and his sureties.</p> <p>In an action upon such a bond it is not enough that the affidavit of defense alleges that the debt secured by the bond was for money embezzled; that the creditor accepted the bond in lieu of the money embezzled; and that the acceptance of the bond worked the release of the debtor “from all liability to prosecution for said crime of embezzlement.” It must go further and allege the employment of criminal proceedings, or the threat to resort to them, as a means of coercion to compel the execution of the bond.</p>