Gordon v. Casey
Illinois Supreme Court
Franklin Casey filed his declaration in debt in the St. Clair Circuit Court, on a note of which the following is a copy: “$160—On or before the first day of March eighteen hundred and fifty three I promise to pay Franklin Casey or order one hundred and sixty dollars provided Franklin A Pierce is elected President of the United States if not this obligation to be null and void for value received. Joseph Gordon, Paps House October 11th 1852. F. M. Gordon.”
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Franklin Casey filed his declaration in debt in the St. Clair Circuit Court, on a note of which the following is a copy: “$160—On or before the first day of March eighteen hundred and fifty three I promise to pay Franklin Casey or order one hundred and sixty dollars provided Franklin A Pierce is elected President of the United States if not this obligation to be null and void for value received. Joseph Gordon, Paps House October 11th 1852. F. M. Gordon.” Plea of general issue, and notice to the effect that the defendants would give in evidence that the note sued on was founded on a bet…
1Opinion of the CourtCaton, C. J.
We shall not waste time in attempting to prove that this was a wager or bet, depending on the result of the presidential election. It is as much a bet, and as manifestly so, as if one party had placed his horse, and the other eighty dollars in money, in the hands of the stake-holder, to be delivered to the party winning the bet. Indeed the conditions of this wager are in the precise terms of the 52nd section of the election law of 1845, viz: “ Or if any person shall agree to pay any other person any money, property or other valuable thing, in the event that any election as aforesaid shall…
2Cited by1 opinion
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