Richmond v. Moore

Citations

• 107 Ill. 429
• 1883 Ill. LEXIS 280

Syllabus

<p>1. Sunday—contract made on Sunday is valid. A contract entered into on a Sunday is not void by reason of having been made on that day, either at the common law, or under the 261st section of the Criminal Code, forbidding the disturbance of the peace and good order of society by labor, etc., on Sunday. The statute was not intended to prohibit the transaction of business merely, as distinguished from labor, on Sunday. Decisions of other courts, holding a different rule, were made under statutes essentially different from our own.</p> <p>2. Statute—language construed in its ordinary sense. The courts must, in the absence of all qualifying circumstances, presume that in the enactment of laws the language used was used in its ordinary sense. Hence, the word “labor, ” in section 261 of the Criminal Code, does not include mere business.</p>