Authority, credit, ascendance. 2. Influence is proper or improper. Proper influence is that which one person gains over another by acts of kindness and, attention, and by correct conduct. 3 Serg. & Rawle, 269. Improper influence is that dominion acquired by any person over a mind of sanity for general purposes, and of sufficient soundness and discretion to regulate his affairs in general, which prevents the exercise of his discretion, and destroys his free will. 1 Cox’s Cas. 355. When the former is used to induce a testator to make a will, it will not vitiate it; but when the latter is the moving cause, the will cannot stand. 3. A contract to use a party’s influeuce to induce a person in authority to exercise his power in a particular way, is void, as being against public policy. See UNDUE INFLUENCE.
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