Ralston v. Ihmsen
Ralston v. Ihmsen
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The court had jurisdiction in this case, and it was properly exercised in granting the relief prayed for. The bill was to enforce the specific performance of a contract made by the administrators of a deceased partner to sell the interest of the decedent to the surviving partners at a price to be fixed by referees. The contract was not that of the decedent, but that
The referees chosen by the parties agreed upon the value of all the property of the firm except the furna'Ces and ovens, of the value of which they had no knowledge. As provided by the agreement, they chose a third referee who was an expert as to the value of these things, and the appraisement was completed and an award made, which by the agreement was to be final and conclusive as determining the value of the interest. The objection that all of the referees did not pass on the value of each item of property in estimating the value of the interest
The decree is affirmed at the cost of the appellants.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Equity—Specific performance—Insufficient remedy at law. The specific performance of a contract will be decreed on account of the damages at law being an insufficient remedy, where there is something peculiar in the subject of the contract that cannot be represented by damages, and where the measure of damages at law is uncertain or unascertainable because of the contingent nature of the property. Equity will enforce the specific performance of a contract made by the administrators of a deceased partner to sell the interest of the decedent to the surviving partners at a price to-be fixed by referees, where it appears that the business conducted by the partnership was a glass manufacturing business, and that the interest of the deceased partner was of a peculiar and specific value to the purchasers, as the possession of it enabled them to continue without interruption a business to which they had contributed most of the capital. In such a case the court of common pleas, and not the orphans’ court, has jurisdiction. Arbitration—Finding of arbitrators—Sale of interest in partnership. Where an agreement for the sale of an interest in a partnership provides that the value of the interest shall be determined by two referees, and if the two referees cannot agree they shall choose a third and that the finding of the referees or two of them shall be conclusive, the findings of the referees is not vitiated by the fact that the two referees originally chosen agreed upon the value of all the property, except certain furnaces and ovens, as to the value of which they had no knowledge, and chose a third referee who, as an expert, valued the furnaces and ovens, and accepted the valuation of the original referees as to the other property. In such a case the objection that all of the referees did not pass on the value of each item of property is without merit.