The New International Encyclopædia/Deceit

​DECEIT. In law, a misrepresentation or other device or contrivance by which one man intentionally deceives another to the legal injury or damage of the latter. The deceit need not be accomplished by any spoken or written words, or by any positive statement or representation; but the concealment of any fact or circumstance which the deceiver is under a legal obligation to disclose, or his mere silence concerning it when the circumstances are such as to put upon him an obligation to speak, amount to deceit as fully as if positive misrepresentation was made. But mere silence concerning matter which there is no obligation to disclose is not generally deceit, even though the party misled may be known to be acting upon a false idea as to those facts. Thus, if A sells a plot of land to B, who pays a larger price for it than he otherwise would have done ​because he supposes it to contain deposits of iron, there is no legal deceit, if A knows of B’s supposition and takes advantage of it to obtain a high price for the land, provided A does not in any way contribute to B’s mistaken idea, nor give or make any false statements or representations concerning the supposed deposits, either directly or indirectly. If B were to ask A if there were such deposits, and A should reply that he did not know, when he knew there were none, or lead B to suppose he did not know, this would be deceit. Deceit involves as a necessary element the intention to deceive in a matter in which the deceived party has a right to know the truth and rely upon it. Without this intent a misrepresentation might amount to a legal mistake, but would not be a basis for an allegation of the tort of fraud.

If the party deceived be in a position such that by the exercise of due caution or diligence, or by duly taking advantage of matters open to his knowledge, he would not have been deceived, there is no legal deceit, even though his reason for failing to take reasonable care was due to his confidence in the honesty of the party by whom he is deceived. If, however, he is dissuaded from the exercise of his caution by the actions of the other party intended to so dissuade him, there is deceit. The misrepresentation or misleading must be in respect of matters material to the transaction concerned, and must be relied upon to the deceived party’s prejudice in the same transaction in order to lay a basis for an action. Misrepresentations as to matters of law are not generally sufficient to lay a basis for an action, although the circumstances may be such as to make them so. Reckless statements, made without any regard to whether they are true or not, or false statements, made in the belief that they are true when the party making them is legally bound to know and state the true facts, are legally deceitful. But mere expressions of opinion, or of anticipation as to what will happen in the future, is not deceit.

Deceit is a necessary element of a fraud, and no exact or absolute definition or statement can be given of what is deceit, except in a general way, as above. (See Fraud.) The term deceit is used as a name of a writ formerly used in an action for acknowledging a fine (q.v.) in another name, but this action and writ are now obsolete.