Doggett v. Feitig
Doggett v. Feitig
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
On March 1, 1906, Henry G. Feitig entered into an agreement with John L. Fry for the purchase of seven properties in the City of Philadelphia. On April 2d of the same year he entered into a second agreement with Fry for the purchase of nine other properties situated in the said city. These agreements provided that Feitig was to have the privilege of selling any or all of the properties at any time before he was required to make final settlement, and was to have the benefit of any increased price at which he might sell. The agreement further provided that, in the event of his making any sale, title was to be made directly by Fry to the purchaser. Stanley Doggett, the appellant, and Feitig are brothers-in-law. Doggett learned from Feitig that he had been successful in real estate operations and requested information from him as to opportunities for speculation which might come to his notice. Without communicating to Doggett the fact that he had entered into contracts for the purchase of the sixteen properties from Fry, Feitig recommended Doggett to purchase them. He was introduced by Feitig to the agent of Fry, with whom negotiations for the purchase of fourteen of the properties were carried on, culminating in two con
The bill of the appellant is for the restoration of that part of the purchase-money for the properties which passed into the hands of Feitig, but he makes no offer of restoration. He affirms his contracts for the purchase of the properties by holding on to such of them as he has not yet sold. His charge against Feitig is fraud, and, if he was injured thereby, he cannot repudiate the transaction, so far as it is injurious to himself, and adopt it so far as it is beneficial. He must either allow it to stand or set it aside in toto: Bispham’s Principles of Equity, 355. He makes no offer to return, because he cannot. By reason of his own sale of some of the properties, he cannot reinvest title to them in Feitig. On those which he sold he may have realized a profit, and those which he still retains may be worth more than he paid for them. In affirming his purchases from Fry his
The trial judge found as a fact, after hearing witnesses, that the appellee had not promised to refund the $3,805.25 to the appelant. This is all that need be said in overruling the third assignment of error. In dismissing the bill no error was committed in imposing the costs upon the complainant who filed it.
Decree affirmed at appellant’s costs.
Reference
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- Equity—Sales of real estate—Fraud—Necessity of proving loss. A party having made an agreement to purchase certain real estate, wherein it was provided that he might sell any or all of the properties before final settlement, and that he should have the benefit of the increased price on any property which he might sell, informed a prospective investor, who was ignorant of his interest in the transaction, that the properties which he had purchased were for sale .and introduced him to the agent of the holder of the legal title. The properties were conveyed to such investor at an advance of $7,322.09 over the purchase-price previously agreed upon between the legal owner and his first vendee, and such vendee retained a part of the profit. In a suit in equity by the grantee of the land to recover from the prior vendee the profit which he had realized from the transaction, the grantee did not offer to reconvey, and it appeared that a reconveyance was impossible. No facts were averred from which' the loss, if any,could be ascertained. The lower court decided that as a reconveyance was impossible and as the loss, if any, could not be ascertained, the bill should be dismissed. Held, no error.