CAPTATION

CAPTATION, French law. The act of one who succeeds in controlling the will of another, so as to become master of it. It is generally taken in a bad sense.

2. Captation takes place by those demonstrations of attachment and friendship, by those assiduous attentions, by those services and officious little presents which are usual among friends, and by all those means which ordinarily render us agreeable to others. When those attentions are unattended by deceit or fraud, they are perfectly fair, and the captation is lawful; but if, under the mask of friendship, fraud is the object, and means are used to deceive the person with whom you are connected, then the captation is fraudulent, and the acts procured by the captator are void. See Influence.