Arnold's Administrator v. Fitzgerald
Arnold's Administrator v. Fitzgerald
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court, March 2d 1874.
These two cases, depending on the same facts, were tried together under the same instructions, and as the assignments of error are the same in both, the judgments must stand or fall together. The defence set up to the writs of scire facias was, that the judgments were paid, and satisfied under the agreement between the parties of the 11th of April 1860. By this agreement the defendant sold to the plaintiff’s intestate a tract of land for $1900, to be paid in the following manner, viz.: $1002.79 on the 1st of May 1860, by entering satisfaction on the judgments in controversy: one-half of the residue on the 10th of May 1861, and the remaining half on the 10th of May 1862. The'evidence showed that the decedent took possession of the land and paid $101 of the purchase-money; that the defendant instituted an action of ejectment against him in the Common Pleas of Armstrong county, and recovered a verdict and judgment for the land, to be released on the payment of $2015.76 within thirty days from date, with interest. The vendee failed to pay the amount found to be due by the jury, and surrendered possession of the land to the vendor. It is clear that his failure to pay the purchase-money within the time prescribed by the conditional verdict and judgment operated as a dissolution of the contract, and put an end to all the rights and obligations of the parties under it: Potts’s Appeal, 5 Barr 501. The vendor could no longer demand or maintain an action for the unpaid purchase-money ; nor could he compel the vendee to satisfy the judgments if they were unsatisfied when the recovery was had. They were not satisfied in fact; were they satisfied in law or in equity ? The agreement to pay a portion of the purchase-money by entering satisfaction on the judgments was executory. Was it performed
Judgment reversed, and a venire facias de novo awarded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.