Tomson v. Sell
Tomson v. Sell
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This was an action for the recovery of money. Judgment was for the plaintiff. Defendant appeals.
The petition made Aaron Sell and the Fidelity State Bank of Dodge City defendants. It alleged that about October 15, 1937, a written contract was entered into between plaintiff and defendant Sell, whereby plaintiff agreed to sell and defendant agreed to buy certain real estate for an agreed price of $3,705, of which $500 was to be paid in cash, and the balance was to be paid on completion of the deal; that the $500 was paid by defendant and was deposited in escrow in the Fidelity State Bank of Dodge City to be held by the bank until the seller should furnish good title to the real property; that the conveyance was to be made by a warranty deed and abstract furnished showing good merchantable title to the property; that a deed from the seller named in the contract, joined in by his wife, and executed and acknowledged in proper form, in favor of defendant as grantee, was also deposited in the Fidelity State Bank; that the contract provided that all deferred payments were to be
For his answer, the defendant alleged that at the time the agreement was entered into plaintiff was not the owner of the real estate in question; that at the time of the pretended delivery of the deed to defendant the plaintiff was not seized in fee of the property and could not have made a good title and the title was not marketable, and the attention of plaintiff was directed to the defects in the title, and plaintiff refused to perfect the title and failed to give defendant a title in fee simple clear of all encumbrances; that defendant had fully performed every act to be done by him according to the terms of the contract, and plaintiff had failed to convey the property to him by general warranty deed and abstract showing merchantable title and that'defendant was entitled to recover back his $500 from the Fidelity State Bank. The prayer of the answer was that defendant have judgment against the Fidelity State Bank of Dodge City for $500.
With the issues thus made up a jury was waived and the cause was submitted to the court. At the close of the opening statement of counsel for plaintiff, the defendant moved for judgment on the statement. This motion was overruled. At the conclusion of the evidence of plaintiff, defendant moved for judgment on the pleadings and evidence of plaintiff. This motion was overruled. The defendant introduced his evidence, and after the argument of counsel the trial court found in favor of plaintiff and gave judgment to plaintiff for $500. The court further found that the Fidelity State Bank of Dodge City had filed an answer admitting that it had in its possession $500 deposited in escrow with the contract sued on. It was ordered that the $500 be paid to the clerk of the trial court, to be held by the clerk pending the appeal of the action and the further order of the court. A motion for a new trial was filed by defendant and overruled by the trial court. Hence this appeal.
The first argument of defendant is that the trial court erred in overruling his motion for judgment on the pleadings and opening statement of plaintiff. In this connection the defendant points out that plaintiff furnished defendant an abstract of title to the land about November 8, 1937, and the attorney for defendant made certain requirements; that during the last week in November, 1937, plaintiff advised defendant that he had met six of the requirements and he did not consider it essential that he meet the remaining ones. Defendant argues that the contract provided that the $500 was to remain in the bank until he had approved the title. He argues that he never did approve the abstract — hence cannot be bound. He relies in a large measure on what this court held in Hollingsworth v. Colthurst, 78 Kan. 455, 98 Pac. 851. In that case the contract provided that the title should be satisfactory to the buyer. This court said:
*550 “If such, a contract be made, the party to be satisfied is the judge of his own satisfaction, subject to the limitation that he must act in good faith.” (p. 456.)
That opinion is not decisive of the question we have here. In this case the seller agreed to furnish a “good merchantable title.” True, the contract did provide that the $500 was to be held in the bank until first party could furnish “good title to be approved by second party.”
These two provisions must be construed together, and when this is done we have no trouble in reaching the conclusion that the approval of defendant related to whether the title offered by plaintiff was a “good merchantable” one and that a refusal to accept such title must be reasonable. Under such circumstances this court has held that the title must be “free from reasonable doubt in law and in'fact; not merely a valid title in fact, but one which readily can be sold or mortgaged to a reasonably prudent purchaser or mortgagee.” (See Myrick v. Austin, 141 Kan. 778, 44 P. 2d 286, also 66 C. J. 862.)
Under the facts set out in the pleadings and the opening statement of counsel here we cannot say that there was such a reasonable doubt on this title as to require a judgment for defendant at that stage of the case.
Defendant next argues that the court erred in overruling his motion for judgment at the conclusion of the evidence. In brief, this evidence showed that when the contract was entered into plaintiff did not have title to the land; that when defendant stated that he would give $15 an acre for it, or $3,705, plaintiff immediately had the contract executed by his agent, and took steps to acquire title by means of an administrator’s deed. This he did for a price of $2,250. That he did not have the title when he made the contract of sale is of no moment, just so he had title when he tendered the deeds to defendant and demanded performance. (See McAdam v. Leak, 111 Kan. 704, 208 Pac. 569.) When the abstract was furnished to defendant he handed it to his attorney, who proceeded to examine it. After the examination he made a number of requirements. The plaintiff substantially complied with these requirements. The requirement with which defendant did not comply was one wherein the attorney stated that the record showed that the debts due from the Samuel Brinley estate amounted to $3,000; that the sale of the real estate to plaintiff for $2,250 would not pay the
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.