If the belief would not naturally have had such an effect, either
in general or under the known circumstances of the particular
case, the fraud is immaterial. If a man is induced to contract
with another by a fraudulent representation of the latter that he
is a great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson, I do not suppose that
the contract would be voidable unless the contractee knew that,
for special reasons, his lie would tend to bring the contract
about.
The conditions or grounds for avoiding a contract which have been
dealt with thus far are conditions concerning the conduct of the
parties outside of the itself. [327] Still confining myself to
conditions arising by construction of law,--that is to say, not
directly and in terms attached to a promise by the literal
meaning of the words in which it is expressed,--I now come to
those which concern facts to which the contract does in some way
refer.
Such conditions may be found in contracts where the promise is
only on one side. It has been said that where the contract is
unilateral, and its language therefore is all that of the
promisor, clauses in his favor will be construed as conditions
more readily than the same words in a bilateral contract; indeed,
that they must be so construed, because, if they do not create a
condition, they do him no good, since ex hypothesi they are not
promises by the other party.
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