Opinion ID: 382688
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: duress, undue influence, and failure of consideration

Text: 42 Hugh Hunt urges several affirmative defenses to any contract which may have been formed in the January 16 conference. These defenses center around the emotional strain and pressures of the settlement negotiations: 43 The Court should consider the posture in which Hugh Hunt found himself at that tense and compelling moment in this already emotionally charged litigation. He unhappily discovered himself inexorably drawn into the vortex of these settlement negotiations, without benefit of personal legal counsel. He thusly became torn between his own innermost feelings of dismay at what seemed to be transpiring and the unclear effects thereof on his personal welfare, as opposed to what legal counsel for his mother were strongly pressing upon him as being in her best interests. 44 Appellant's Brief at 25. Hugh Hunt may indeed have been under great pressure at this time, and the record shows that the emotional strain caused him to leave the meeting before it was completed. But these facts do not establish either duress or undue influence under Texas law. One state court has defined duress as follows: 45 (O)ur courts of Texas have consistently followed the rule, as a matter of law, that (1) there can be no duress unless there is a threat to do some act which the party threatening has no legal right to do; (2) there must be some illegal exaction or some fraud or deception; (3) the restraint must be imminent and such as to destroy free agency without present means of protection. 46 Tower Contracting Co., Inc., of Texas v. Bruden Brothers, Inc., 482 S.W.2d 330, 335 (Tex.Civ.App. Dallas 1972, writ ref. n. r. e.). See also Mitchell v. C.C. Sanitation Co., 430 S.W.2d 933 (Tex.Civ.App. Houston (14th Dist.) 1968, writ ref. n. r. e.); Sanders v. Republic National Bank of Dallas, 389 S.W.2d 551 (Tex.Civ.App. Tyler 1965, no writ history). In order to prove undue influence, one must demonstrate that persuasion, entreaty, importunity, argument, intercession, and solicitation were so strong as to subvert and overthrow the will of the person to whom they are directed. DeGrassi v. DeGrassi, 533 S.W.2d 81, 85 (Tex.Civ.App. Amarillo 1976, writ ref. n. r. e.). See Curry v. Curry, 270 S.W.2d 208 (Tex.1954). Duress and undue influence are difficult defenses to establish. Certainly they are not suggested by the facts of this case; emotional strain and negotiation pressures are not by themselves enough to overcome the will of the party to a contract, and there is no evidence that they resulted from threats, illegal exaction, fraud or deception. 47 Hugh Hunt makes the related argument that he received nothing in return for his signature on the transcript of the January 16 meeting. It is true that the agreement guaranteed him none of the final settlement amount, which was to be distributed in accordance with his mother's directions. But a party need not receive the benefit of a contract in order to be bound by it; it is enough that the party seeking to hold another to the contract suffer a legal detriment. So long as consideration is sufficient to support the contract, which party actually receives the consideration is irrelevant. E. g., Loomis v. Skillerns-Loomis Plaza, Inc., 593 S.W.2d 409 (Tex.Civ.App. Dallas 1980, no writ history); Mercantile National Bank at Dallas v. Hudgens, 412 S.W.2d 364 (Tex.Civ.App. Ft. Worth 1967, writ ref. n. r. e.); Minton v. Riverside State Bank, 399 S.W.2d 196 (Tex.Civ.App. Ft. Worth 1966, no writ history).