Swan v. Drury
Swan v. Drury
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court. This was an action of assumpsit on a written contract, whereby the (•<? ^ndants agreed to purchase of the plaintiff a certain farm and pasture, and to pay him therefor the sum of $ 3000, $ 800 to be paid by undoubted notes, when the deed should be ready and made out for them, and the remainder to be paid by annual instalments of $ 200, with interest. It was proved, that the plaintiff tendered to one of the defendants a deed of the farm &c. with the usual covenants of seisin and warranty and covenant against incumbrances, but it was also proved that there was a mortgage on the premises of $ 1000 then due to one Jennison ; and the defendants refused to receive the deed and execute me contract on their part. On this evidence the jury were instructed, that before the plaintiff could demand payment, he was bound to tender a conveyance to the defendants of an unincumbered title to the farm. And this instruction was clearly correct. The conveyance of the farm and the payment of the $ 800, were, by the terms of the contract, to be concurrent acts ; and the covenants or agreements of the parties were dependent. In all such cases, neither party can compel the performance of the contract by the other, without an actual performance of the agreement, or an offer to perform it, on his part. The agreement of the plaintiff was to convey the
The exception, also, to the rejection of the parol evidence, cannot, we think, be sustained. The plaintiff offered to prove thereby, that at the time of the making of the contract, the defendants knew of the incumbrance on the farm by the mortgage to Mrs. Jennison, and that it was then understood and agreed, that the mortgage should remain thereon. This evidence would have had a tendency to vary and contradict the terms of the written contract, and had no tendency to prove a subsequent waiver of the exception to the plaintiff’s title. It was therefore clearly inadmissible.
It only remains to be considered, whether the jury were correctly instructed as to the subsequent waiver of the exception to the plaintiff’s title. The plaintiff introduced evidence tending to prove, that previously to the tender of the deed, the defendants had declared they should not insist on the removal of the incumbrance ; and, on this evidence, the jury were instructed, that parol declarations thus made would not amount to a waiver, unless, taken in connexion with what took place at the time of the tender, the whole evidence showed that the defendants intended at that time to waive such exception.
The correctness of this instruction cannot be disputed, unless the defendants were bound by their previous declarations or promises. And we are of opinion, that they were not ob
Judgment on the verdict.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Baxter Swan versus Joel Drury
- Status
- Published