Haigler v. Merritt
Haigler v. Merritt
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff was employed by the defendants to sell their land. 1-Ie effected a sale with a designated purchaser, one Wehr, who entered into a binding contract therefor, subject only to the conveyance of a good title, to be approved by Wehr’s attorney. Prior to January 1, 1919, the time limit for consummation, it was known that an impediment existed which prevented such approval, and the contract — with an unimportant modification — was extended by mutual agreement until March 2, 1919. There was no formal withdrawal from the contract on or after that date by either party, but on March 13th Wehr’s attorney wrote to him, to the defendants, and to the depository bank that the title was defective, for a specific reason, and could not be approved, and on that day Wehr withdrew from the bank his earnest money deposit of $1,009, of which action plaintiff was not informed until about April 1st. In the meantime, on March 21st, defendants deposited their deed to Wehr in escrow with the bank, and wrote a letter to Wehr, informing him of that action, “done in accordance with the terms of said written contract,” and that the “bank is authorized and directed to deliver same to you upon compliance by you with terms and payment as provided in said contract,” and that “in making this tender we merely manifest our willingness and readiness to comply with the terms of the contract imposed upon us.” On the same day a similar letter was delivered to the bank, with appropriate instructions for delivery of the deed to Wehr upon his payment of the amount required. Thereupon plaintiff conferred with Wehr, and Wehr conferred with his attorney, and on April 11th Wehr paid the money and received the deed.
The excess of the purchase money over $10,000 was $1,183.33. Deducting from this sum $225.15; the amount of the expenses to be borne by plaintiff (as to which there was no dispute), and deducting, also, the further sum of $226.66, the amount of interest necessary to give to defendants the equivalent of the sum to which they were entitled as of January 1, 1919, there remained due to plaintiff the sum of- $731.52, upon which interest should be allowed from April 11,1919, to September 30, 1919, the date of the judgment. It results that plaintiff was entitled to recover the sum of $759, and that the instruction and judgment for a larger sum were erroneous.
Corrected and affirmed, conditionally.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- HAIGLER Et Al. v. MERRITT
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published