Case Name: The United Jewelers Manufacturing Company, a Partnership, v. E. E. Keckley
Court: Kansas Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Kansas
Decision Date: 1907-06-08
Citations: 77 Kan. 797
Docket Number: No. 15,106
Parties: The United Jewelers Manufacturing Company, a Partnership, v. E. E. Keckley.
Judges: 
Reporter: Kansas Reports
Volume: 77
Pages: 797–797

Head Matter:
The United Jewelers Manufacturing Company, a Partnership, v. E. E. Keckley.
No. 15,106.
(90 Pac. 781.)
Contracts — Illegality—Gift-enterprise. Where a petition did not show that a contract involved the element of chance a demurrer on the ground that the contract was prohibited by chapter 152 of the Laws of 1895 was properly overruled.
Error from Norton district court: Abel C. T. Geiger, judge.
Opinion filed June 8, 1907.
Reversed.
John R. Hamilton, for plaintiff in error.
L. H. Thompson, and W. T. Hayes, for defendant in error.

Opinion:
Per Curiam:
In this case the contract sued upon contained a provision for a gift to each purchaser of jewelry in furtherance of an advertising scheme, and the claim is that it is void as a gift-enterprise under chapter 152 of the Laws of 1895. (Gen. Stat. 1901, § 2897-2402.)
Every scheme prohibited by that statute, no matter what the device employed, involves the element of chance as the determining factor upon which money or property may be procured. Here there is no chance. Each purchaser receives a certificate of purchase entitling him to a hat-pin, which so far as the contract discloses is the same in all cases. If by answer it should be made to appear that chance enters into the distribution of the hat-pins, so that some purchasers may receive advantages over others, a gift-enterprise might be made out.
The judgment of the district court is reversed and the cause is remanded, with direction to overrule the demurrer to the petition.