Jones v. Hubbard
Jones v. Hubbard
Opinion of the Court
The contract before us is not a loan, nor is the deed to be considered as a mortgage. In both those contracts, money has been received upon a condition to be returned. In the case of a mortgage too, it is of no importance, that the deed contains no covenant for re-payment: Such a covenant results from the nature of the transaction. In the agreement before us, however, no money has been received by the appellee’s intestate, and there was no contract on his part for its re-payment. It is true the transaction was intended to have the same effect, in his favour, as a loan. It was intended to enable him to sell his land : Not, indeed, by preventing a sale, as a loan would have done, but by enabling him to re-purchase it, on the terms to be thereafter agreed on, and within the time specified. The appellant always refused to lend, to the appellee’s intestate, the requisite sum, even under the security of a deed of trust, giving for a reason, among others, that it would distress him to sell the land again under such deed : But he consented to put the business in such a train as would, in the event of his becoming the purchaser, leave the land absolutely his, if the meditated conditions of re-purchase should not be
The contract is therefore to be rescinded, on making just compensation. The measure of that compensation is the principal money with interest. We cannot go into the foreign and speculative enquiry as to what sacrifices the appellant may have encountered in raising the money. We cannot vary our decree, under like circumstances, with the greater or lesser degree of prudence used by one of the contending parties.
On these grounds the decree is to be affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.