There is a wide distinction between facts and a conclusion from facts. It is difficult, at times, to distinguish a conclusion of fact from a conclusion of law. At times, the conclusion of fact may be also a conclusion of law — for example, to say that a right once belonging to A is now the property of B, is a conclusion of law as well as a conclusion of fact. (Adams vs. Holley, 12 Howard’s Practice, 326.) To charge that A is guilty of fraud is to charge a conclusion of law as well as to state a conclusion of facts. The statement in the decision of the court in this case “that the plaintiff has the right to recover one undivided seventh part of the lands described in said complaint, she being, according to the evidence, the owner of the said seventh part,” is also a conclusion of fact as well as a conclusion of law. No court is justified in reaching that conclusion without having certain ultimate facts presented to it. No court would be justified in finding that A was guilty of fraud in the absence of hearing proof upon certain ultimate facts. There may be much evidence introduced for the purpose of establishing certain ultimate facts, which ultimate facts, taken together, justify a conclusion — for example, that A is guilty of fraud.

There is much conflict among the authorities with reference to whether or not certain statements are conclusions of law or conclusions of fact. A statement of fact in a pleading may be a conclusion of fact or law if found in a judgment or decision. For example, if A alleges in his pleading that he is the owner of certain personal property and therefore entitled to the possession of the same, it is a statement of a fact, whereas, if the same statements were found in the judgment of the court it might be regarded as a conclusion of fact. So also of duress; to allege in the complaint that the plaintiff was compelled to pay a sum of money is a conclusion of law (Commercial Bank vs. City of Rochester, 41 Barber, 341; 41 N. Y., 619), while to say that he was threatened by the defendant with death or with great bodily injury, and in fear of same paid a sum of money, etc., or that he was illegally imprisonment and to procure a release, paid, etc., would doubtless be held to be a statement of facts. It is not possible to formulate a definition or a statement that will always enable us to distinguish what is meant by a conclusion of law in contradiction from a conclusion of fact; yet, in inspecting pleadings or judgments, it will seldom be difficult to make the distinction.