N. Y. & E. T. Iron Co. v. Greene County Iron Co.
N. Y. & E. T. Iron Co. v. Greene County Iron Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This bill is filed to enjoin defendants from cutting and using certain timber on lands formerly belonging
Respondent answers, and claims that the land was purchased at a sale made by order of the Chancery Court, at the instance of the administrator of Joshua Kelly, and purchased by respondent with the understanding that Talmage had only purchased the timber on 238 acres south of the Gap. It is admitted that respondent had .notice of the contract we have above quoted. It is then insisted that Kelly, when he made the contract, was at the point of death, incompetent to make a contract, and that this was one obtained by fraud, in misnaming the instrument to him by Talmage — reading it as selling, or contracting to sell, the timber on 238 acres south of the Gap, instead of the timber on all his land.
We need not discuss or decide the question as to whether the purchaser of land, with notice of a previous conveyance, can avoid the conveyance because ■ it was obtained from his vendor by fraud. Suffice it
This, however, was a contract for the sale of personalty — that is, an agreement to sell the timber designated, but the property did not pass in the timber until it should be used or received by the purchaser- — at any rate, not till cut and corded up, as it. was to be paid for by the cord as used. See Hil-liard on Sales, p. 37, sec. 4, p. 43, sec. 8.
In the language of Park, J., in the case of Smith v. Surman, 9 B. & C., cited in note to Parsons on Cont., vol. 2, pp. 312-13, “the party could take no interest in the land by his contract, because he could not acquire any property in the trees till they were cut.” This being the nature of the ' contract — an agreement to sell personalty, to-wit, the timber growing on the land — if it is to be avoided, it probably should be by the administrator or personal representative, and not by the purchaser of the realty.
But passing from this, the party purchasing at a judicial sale of this character, would be in the position of an assignee, and stand in the shoes of the party under whom he claims as to the realty, taking it with all incumbrances upon it, not being an innocent purchaser; that is* he takes the land subject to-the stipulations of the contract of Kelly, in whose shoes he stands’. This contract, if valid and binding on Kelly, may well then be enforced and protected against interference as to the purchaser under the judicial sale. The contract of Kelly necessarily carried with it the right to enter upon the land for the pur
We may say, as to the allegations of fraud on the part of Talmage in obtaining the contract, and incapacity on the part of Kelly in making the contract, the proof fails to make out such a case; at most, it raises a suspicion, but is not enough to overturn a written contract duly entered into.
It is insisted in argument that. the contract is too indefinite and uncertain — not specifying any particular land, but selling the timber on all the land owned by the said Kelly. The rulé in such cases is, that the court may put themselves in the place of the parties, and then see how the terms of the instrument affect the property or the subject matter. With this view, evidence must be admissible of all the circumstances surrounding the parties to the instrument. See Greenl. Ev., vol. —, sec. 287; Add. on Cont., 847.
The result is, the decree of the Chancellor must be reversed, and decree entered here for complainant.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.