Also known as: vitiates · vitiated · vitiating · vitiation · invalidate · nullify
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Conduct or a circumstance that impairs the legal force or validity of an instrument, claim, or argument. The impairment may render the matter void or voidable in whole or in part.
Vance Vogel made a recorded admission that he had falsified inventory records to hide a shortfall at Velocity Logistics. When the company later sued him for conversion, the admission was offered after Vance became unavailable. The court treated the statement as one a reasonable person would make only if believed true because it exposed him to civil liability and the defect did not vitiate admissibility.
Vera Vu and other voters sued state officials claiming that a newly drawn congressional map deliberately favored one party. The district court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the claim presented a nonjusticiable political question and would not vitiate the map.
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Vanessa Vinson witnessed her uncle's will and received a substantial bequest under it. After the uncle's death the other heirs argued that her signature invalidated the entire instrument. The court held that the signing by an interested witness did not vitiate the will or any provision of it.
Valerie Viera signed a marital settlement agreement after her spouse concealed substantial assets. When she later sought to set the agreement aside, the court found that the lack of full financial disclosure and the resulting unfairness vitiated the contract.
Vaughn Valentine, the special prosecutor, subpoenaed Oval Office tapes for use in a criminal trial. The President asserted a generalized confidentiality privilege. The Court held that the need for relevant evidence in criminal proceedings overcame the claim of privilege and did not allow it to vitiate production of the tapes.
Violet Vidal petitioned for review of a nuclear-safety regulation, arguing that the agency had failed to consider a less burdensome alternative. The court upheld the rule, explaining that it would not vitiate an agency action merely because a different procedure might have been preferable.
No. Many rules provide that a particular defect does not invalidate the document or any provision of it. For example, the signature of an interested witness does not invalidate a will.
A spouse may invalidate the agreement by proving fraud, deceit, duress, coercion, misrepresentation, or overreaching. Even without such proof, the agreement may be set aside if it is unfair and the challenging spouse lacked full financial disclosure.
The statement remains admissible if a reasonable person in the declarant's position would have made it only if believed true because it was contrary to the declarant's proprietary or pecuniary interest or exposed the declarant to civil or criminal liability. Such a motive does not vitiate the exception.
…While the opinion thus commands my respect, I find myself nonetheless in fundamental disagreement with those parts of it that invalidate the Texas statute in question, and therefore dissent. I The Court's opinion decides that a State may impose virtually no restriction on the performance of abortions during the first…