(A) pleading. The statement of matter which is introductory to the principal subject of the declaration or plea, but which is necessary to explain and elucidate it; such matter as is not introductory to or necessary to elucidate the substance or gist of the declaration or plea nor is collaterally applicable to it, not being inducement but surplusage. Inducement or conveyance, which. are synonymous terms, is in the nature of a preamble to an act of assembly, and leads to the Principal subject of the declaration or plea the same as that does to the purview 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 possessed 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. I 2. (B) 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 confessions 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.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
In contracts. The benefit or advantage which the promisor is to receive from a contract is the Inducement for making it.
In criminal evidence. Motive; that which leads or tempts to the commission of crime. Burrill Circ. Ev. 283.
In pleading. That portion of a declaration or of any subsequent pleading in an action which is brought forward by way of explanatory introduction to the main allegations.