Collusion

An agreement between two or more persons to defraud a person of his rights by the forms of law, or to obtain an object forbidden by law. The act of married persons in procuring a divorce by mutual consent, whether by the preconcerted commission, by one, of a matrimonial offense, or by failure, in pursuance of agreement, to defend divorce proceedings. It is distinguished from "connivance," which is the abetting by a spouse of a matrimonial offense in order to procure a divorce there-

An agreement between two or more persons to defraud a person of his rights by the forms of law, or to obtain an object forbidden by law. Collusion and fraud of every kind vitiate all acts which are infected with them, and render them void. See 3 Hagg. Eccl. 130, 133; Mc Kay v. Williams, 67 Mich. 547, 35 N. W. 159, 11 Am. St. Rep. 597; Winter v. Truax, 87 Mich. 324, 49 N. W. 604, 24 Am. St. Rep. 160; 2 Greenl. Ev. § 51; Bousquet, Diet. Abordage. In Divorce Law. An agreement between a husband and wife that one of them will commit or appear to commit a breach of matrimonial duties in order that the other may obtain a remedy at law as for a real injury. 2 Wait, Act. & Def. 591; 2 Lev. & Tr. 302; L. R. 1 P. & M. 121. See Reed v. Reed, 86 Mich. 600, 49 N. W. 587; Belz v. Belz, 33 111. App. 105. Such an agreement is a fraud upon the court where the remedy is sought; Hopkins v. Hopkins, 39 Wis. 167; and will bar a divorce; L. R. 1 P. & M. 121; 2 Bish. Mar. Div. & Sep. 251. "The authorities are uniform in holding that any contract between the parties,.having for its object the dissolution of the marriage contract, or facilitating that result, such as an agreement by the defendant in the pending action for divorce to withdraw his or her opposition and to make no defense, is void as contra bonos mores, and any note given in consideration thereof is void." Adams v. Adams, 25 Minn. 72; Weeks v. Hill, 38 N. H. 199. This was quoted by Sulzberger, J., in Pietz v. Pietz, 20 Dist R. (Pa.) 311. The fact that defendant voluntarily appears, without service, and makes no defense, is not of itself collusion, but the court will, in such case, narrowly examine the evidence; Lyon v. Lyon, 13 Dist. Rep. (Pa.) 623. A mere mutual desire to be divorced will not defeat the granting of the decree when there is no collusion between the parties for the purpose of making evidence; Taylor v. Taylor, 35 Pa. Co. Ct. 385. In Dunbar v. Dunbar, 190 U. S. 340, 23 Sup. Ct. 757, 47 L. Ed. 1084, while the husband and wife were living apart, the husband told the wife that if she would not contest divorce proceedings he would make provision for her support. The court, in holding that a bond for such provision was not discharged in bankruptcy, said that it might be considered as in the nature of an ordinary alimony decree.

An agreement between two or other by the forms of law, or to employ complishing some unlawful object; an and wife that one of them shall do or would give the other a ground for divorce, may thus be procured,

A deceitful agreement or compact between two or more persons, for the one party to bring an action againsi the other for some é6vil purpose, as te defraud a third party of his right. Cowell. A secret arrangement between two or more persons, whose interests are apparently conflicting, to make use of the forms and would not give them, by deceiving a court or its officers. In divorce proceedings, collusion is an agreement between husband and wife that ene of them shall commit, or appear to have committed, or be represented in court as having committed, acts constituting a cause of divorce, for the purpose of enabling the other to obtain a divorce. Civil Code Cal. $114. But it also means connivance or conspiraey in inillating or prosecuting the suit, as where there is a compact for mutual aid in carrying it through to a decree.

^ An agreement between persons to defraud another of his rights by the forms of law or to obtain an object forbidden by law. 3 Whence collusive. See Fraud.

[Lat. collusio, from colludere, to play together.] A deceitful agreement or compact between two or more persons, for the one pM'ty to bring an action against the other for some evil purpose, as to defraud a third party of his riffht. Cowell. Beg. Orig. 179. Termes de la ley.

fraud, is an son of his rights by the forms of law, or to obtain an object forbidden by law; as, for example, where the husband and wife collude to obtain a divorce for a cause not authorised by law. 4 Eccl. R. 310. It is nearly synonymous with covin, (q. v.) Collusion and fraud of every kind vitiate all acts which are infected with them, and render them void.. COLONY, a union of citizens or subjects who have left their country to people another, and remain subject to the mother country. 3 W. C. C. R. 287. The country occupied by the colonists is also called a colony. A colony differs from a possession, or a dependency, (q.v-) For a history of the American colonies, the reader is referred to Story on the Constitution, book I.; 1 Kent. Com. 77 to 80; 1 Dane’s Ab. Index, h. t.