Sampson Bros. v. Townsend

This case is similar to that of Joseph B. Hubbard v. Susan D. Moore, lately decided by this court. The defendant seeks to avoid payment of a debt by pleading her own infamy. Furniture was bought and several installments paid on the debt. She wishes now to pay the balance by lending her aid to the elevation of the morals of the community, and invokes the maxim contra bonos mores.

To permit her to succeed by using a good maxim in so bad a cause would not in our opinion work good to the morals of the community, certainly not to defendants. Much refinement was indulged in in argument on the broad…