Red Star Coal Co. v. Graves
Red Star Coal Co. v. Graves
Opinion of the Court
This suit was brought by the appellee against the appellant for damages for the breach of two alleged contracts. In the first count the alleged contract relied upon was as follows: “Contract. Memoranda and agreement entered into this the 15th day of August, 1905, between H. H. Graves and the Bed Star Coal Company, whereby the said H. H.
It appears from the evidence that appellant owned about 350 acres of land, comprising what is known as the Red Star Mine, and “to the right of No. 1 old workings” there were considerably more than 10 acres of land. The appellee testified as follows-: “I never had any of it staked off for me. I did not know where the lines run. I-knew the directions well enough to work. I could not say that the land I was to work was staked off, but it was described in the contract. It was described in the contract as dying to the right of No. 1 slope.’ ”
1. It will be seen from the above that no specific seven or ten acres of land was set apart to the appellee
The test of an instrument’s sufficiency in description is whether specific performance can be made according to the terms of the deed or contract. As the seven or ten acres were included in a much larger tract, and as no specific land was ever staked off under the contract, the question becomes pertinent in this case as to how many different forms this ten acres could be surveyed in such a way that it would reasonably conform to the words describing the land in the above instrument, and Avhich one of such surveys would a court have the right to choose as the one meant by the contract. It seems to us that the instrument is so clearly void, on account of the manner in which the land Avhich it covers is described in it, that further discussion of the subject is unnecessary.-—South Penn. Oil Co. v. Calk Creek Oil & Gas Co. (C. C.) 140 Fed. 507.
2. If the contract Avhich was made the basis of the first count, was void on account of the uncertainty of the description of the lands which it Avas intended to cover, the contract Avhich formed the basis of the second count Avas A’oid for the identical reasons. If the appellee has any legal rights against appellant under the facts as he claims them to exist, his remedy does not consist in an action of assumpsit for the breach of either of the alleged contracts referred to in his complaint.
Reversed and remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.