Puffer v. Smith

Citations

• 57 Ill. 527

Syllabus

<p>Fraud and circumvention—what constitutes. In an action on a promissory note brought by au innocent assignee thereof, before maturity, for a valuable consideration, against the maker, it appeared the defendant was approached while at work in his field by two patent-right venders who proposed that he become agent for a cultivator and seeder, which they represented as possessing marvelous good qualities, and as the best in existence. He declined. They urged, lauding the machine, and representing the profitable character of the undertaking. He finally assented to accept the agency, when a paper purporting to be a contract between the parties was read to him by one of the men, which he without reading signed. The defendant was no scholar and could not read much. The paper was a long one, and he did not know whether he signed it in the middle or at the end. There was no consideration given, and no machine ever sent to the defendant. The note sued upon, it seems, was in some way incorporated in this paper, and under the circumstances, was regarded as having been obtained by such fraud and circumvention as precluded a recovery.</p>