INDORSER, contracts. The person who makes an indorsement.

2. The indorser of a bill of exchange, or other negotiable paper, by his indorsement undertakes to be responsible to the holder¹ for the amount of the bill or note, if the latter shall make a legal demand from the payer, and, in default of payment, give proper notice thereof to the indorser. But the indorser may make his indorsement conditional², which will operate as a transfer of the bill, if the condition be performed; or he may make it qualified³, so that he shall not be responsible on non-payment by the payer. Chitty on Bills, 179,180.

3. To make an indorser liable on his indorsement, the instrument must be commercial paper, for the indorsement of a bond or single bill.will not, per se, create a responsibility. 13 Serg. & Rawle, 311. But see Treval v. Fitch, 5 Whart. 325; Hopkins v. Cumberland Valley R. R. Co., 3 Watts⁴ & Serg. 410.

4. When there are several indorsers, the. first in point of time is generally, but not always, first-responsible; there may be circumstances which may cast the responsibility, in the first place, as between them, on a subsequent indorsee. 5 Munf. R. 252.

INDUCEMENT, pleading. The statement of matter which is introductory to the principal subject of the declaration or plea, &c., but which is necessary to explain and elucidate⁵ it; such matter as is not introductory to or necessary to elucidate the substance or gist⁶ of the declaration or plea, &c. nor is collaterally⁷ applicable to it, not being inducement but surplusage. Inducement or conveyance⁸, which. are synonymous terms, is in the nature of a preamble⁹ to an act of assembly, and leads to the Principal subject of the declaration or plea, &c. the same as that does to the purview¹⁰ or providing clause of the act. For instance, in an action for a nuisance to property in the possession of the plaintiff, the circumstance of his being possessed¹¹ of the property should be stated as inducement, or byway of introduction to the mention of the nuisance. Lawes, Pl. 66, 67; 1 Chit. Pl. 292; Steph. Pl. 257; 14 Vin. Ab. 405; 20 Id. 845; Bac. Ab. Pleas. &c. I 2.

INDUCEMENT, contracts, evidence. The moving cause of an action.

2. In contracts, the benefit.which the obligor is to receive is the inducement to making them. Vide Cause; Consideration.

3. When a person is charged with a crime, he is sometimes induced to make confessions¹² by the flattery of hope, or the torture of fear. When such confessions are made in consequence of promises or threats by a person in authority, they cannot be received in evidence. In England a distinction has been made between temporal and spiritual inducements; confessions made under the former are not receivable in evidence, while the latter may be admitted. Joy on Conf. ss. 1 and 4.

INDUCLAE LEGALES, Scotch¹³ law. The days between the citation¹⁴ of the defendant¹⁵, and the day of appearance. Bell's Scotch Law Dict. h. t. The days between the test and the return day of the writ¹⁶.

INDUCTION¹⁷, eccles. law. The giving a clerk, instituted to a benefice, the actual possession of its temporalties, in the nature of livery of seisin. Ayl. Parerg. 299.

INDUTLGENCE. A favor granted.

2. It is a general rule that where a creditor¹⁸ gives .indulgence, by entering into a binding¹⁹ contract with a principal debtor²⁰, by which the surety is or may be damnified, such surety is discharged, because the creditor has put it out of his power to enforce immediate²¹ payment; when the surety would have a right to require him to do so. 6 Dow, P. C. 238; 3 Meriv. 272; Bac. Ab. Oblig. D; and see Giving Time.

3. But mere²² inaction by the creditor, if he do not deprive himself of the right to sue the principal, does not in general discharge the surety. See Forbearance.