Hollis v. Bland
Hollis v. Bland
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The authority of a chancellor to decree specific performance for the undivided interest of the vendor who contracts to sell the entire estate in a piece of land is amply sustained by the authorities cited in the opinion of the learned court below, and that portion of the opinion treating of this question will be found in the report of this case. We are only concerned with the question as to whether there is here presented such a case as should cause a chancellor to refuse equitable relief. In answering it we must consider the nature of the transaction, the conduct of the parties, and all the circumstances as here presented. “Equitable relief,......is not the absolute right of either party — it is of grace only, and rests in the discretion of the court to be exercised upon a consideration of all the circumstances of the case”: Rennyson v. Rozell, 106 Pa. 407. The capacity of the defendant to contract is not denied. No question of the adequacy of the price to be paid is raised, no imposition or fraud is alleged, and as the appellant states “nothing in the contract was inequitable.” A lawful tender was made by the appellee, first, of the entire amount named in the contract, then of the proportionate amount defendant’s interest in the property represented. The appellee did everything required of her by her contract; but even where the agreement is perfectly good and the price is adequate ánd no blame attaches to the purchaser if the transaction be inequitable, and unjust in itself, or rendered so by matters subsequently occurring, specific performance may be refused and the parties turned over to their remedy in damages; Friend v. Lamb, 152 Pa. 534. Appellant claims that such cir
The assignments of error are overruled, and the decree of the court below is affirmed.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Equity — Specific performance — Undivided interest in land — Jurisdiction. A chancellor has authority to decree specific performance for an undivided interest of a vendor who contracts to sell the entire estate in a piece of land. A chancellor will not refuse to decree specific performance for an undivided interest of the vendor who contracts to sell the entire estate in a piece of land merely because the defendant does not wish to introduce a stranger as a part owner of the land in which her sisters owned the other interests. Equity — Specific performance — Equitable relief — Matter of grace ■ — Discretion. Equitable relief in the matter of enforcing specific performance is not the absolute right of either party — it is of grace only, and rests in the discretion of the court to be exercised upon a consideration of all of the circumstances of the case. ■ Specific performance will -not he refused, because the plaintiff has made an advantageous purchase of property which amply protected any business interest which might have been imperilled by failure to secure the land purchased from the defendant; nor will relief be refused because the plaintiff misstated in her bill certain facts as to the ownership of other real estate which she used in manufacturing, or because she misstated that the property purchased from the defendant was valuable as a storehouse, and that there was no other property in that location having the same advantages. Such matters are entirely unrelated to the contract in question, and are not such occuring since the execution of the contract as would cause its enforcement to be inequitable and unjust, or cause it to be burdensome.