INFLUENCE. Authority, credit, ascendance.
2. Influence is proper or improper. Proper influence is that which one
person gains over another by acts of kindness and, attention, and by correct
conduct. 3 Serg. & Rawle, 269. Improper influence is that dominion acquired
by any person over a mind of sanity for general purposes, and of sufficient
soundness and discretion to regulate his affairs in general, which prevents
the exercise of his discretion, and destroys his free will. 1 Cox's Cas.
355. When the former is used to induce a testator to make a will, it will
not vitiate it; but when the latter is the moving cause, the will cannot
stand. 1 Hagg. R. 581; 2 Hagg. 142; 5 Serg. & Rawle, 207; 13 Serg. & Rawle,
323; 4 Greenl. R. 220; 1 Paige, R. 171; 1 Dow. & Cl. 440; 1 Speers, 93.
3. A contract to use a party's influence to induce a person in
authority to exercise his power in a particular way, is void, as being
against public policy. 5 Watts & Serg. 315; 5 Penn. St. Rep. 452; 7 Watts,
152.