I’ve written before on the illegality defense to breach of contract suits. It’s bedrock contract law that an agreement to do something criminal (example – murder, arson, selling drugs, etc.) is unenforceable against the person who doesn’t perform (example: if I fail to pay a hit man, he can’t sue me for the $). The illegality defense also applies in the civil …
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Contractual Illegality and Medical Fee-Sharing
A contract law axiom states that an illegal contract is unenforceable. The prototypical example involves a plaintiff attempting to sue on a contract that violates a statute or encourages criminal or fraudulent conduct. Those situations clearly give rise to an illegality defense. But what if a contract term technically violates a statute, but the resulting damage is either trivial or nonexistent? A …
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