Tozer v. George
Tozer v. George
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff and the defendants entered into an agreement July 19, 1892, by which the plaintiff agreed to sell and convey to the defendants a certain parcel of land for the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, and in consideration thereof the defendants agreed to pay said sum of money to the plaintiff “at the time and in the manner hereinafter mentioned, to wit, one hundred and seventy dollars upon execution hereof, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, and the balance of thirteen hundred and thirty dollars payable as follows, to wit: twenty dollars on the first day of each and every month thereafter until said principal sum of fifteen hundred dollars has been fully paid in accordance herewith. The privilege is reserved to second party
The court should have sustained the demurrer to the complaint. The only breach therein alleged of the defendants’ agreement is that they had not paid any money in accordance with the terms of the contract since November 2, 1895. The complaint does not, however, allege the amount of money that had been paid prior to that date, nor does it contain any allegation from which it can be determined whether at the date of commencing the action the defendants were in default. While the agreement provided for payments of twenty dollars each on the first of each month, it also provided that the defendants might at any time pay more than this sum, and the plaintiff should have averred the amount that had been paid, so that the court might determine upon the face of the complaint whether the defendants were in default.
The insufficiency of the complaint as against the demurrer is emphasized by a consideration of the judgment which was entered thereon. It does not appear from the record at what date the complaint was filed, but it is recited in the judgment that' the demurrer was overruled on the 16th of March, 1896, and the court finds that the balance due from the defendants under the contract on the 1st of April, 1896, was three hundred and forty dollars. The complaint must be construed as admitting that all the terms of the contract to be performed on the part of the defendants prior to ¡November 2, 1895, had been performed, and if so, only four installments of twenty dollars each could have accrued between the 2d of ¡November, 1895, and the commencement of the action. The judgment of the court that three hundred and forty dollars was due at the time of the entry of judgment is largely in excess of the claim made by the plaintiff, and cannot be sustained. The contract is also treated by the judgment herein as still existing, since after determining the amount already due it declares that on the first of each and every month thereafter there will be due the further sum of twenty dollars, and makes provision for the payment thereof by the defendants. Assuming that only four installments of twenty dollars each were due at the commencement of the action, the judgment directing the payment of three hundred and forty dollars within six months after its entry would change the obligation of the defendants under the contract, since the installments which had
The judgment is reversed.
Garoutte, J., and Van Dyke, J., concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- E. J. TOZER v. MELLIE M. GEORGE
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Vendos and Purchases—Contract of Sale—Installments—Option of Purchaser—Forclosube—Insufficient Complaint.—Where, by the terms of a contract for the sale of land, the purchase money was payable in installments of twenty dollars per month, and the purchaser had the option to pay more than the stipulated installment at any time, a complaint in an action by the vendor to foreclose the rights of the purchaser, which merely avers that' nothing had been paid since a specified date more than three years after the date of the contract, without stating the amount paid, or the amount unpaid, is not sufficient to show a breach of the contract, or to show that defendant was in default at the commencement of the action. Id.—Construction of Complaint—Excessive Judgment.—The complaint must be construed as admitting that the contract of sale had been performed prior to the date since which it was alleged that no payments were made, and a judgment in excess of the amount of installments accruing after that date cannot be sustained.