Drake v. Lyons
Drake v. Lyons
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
Lyons purchased of Drake and Thorpe a small tract of land in Wood county, for which he agreed to pay the sum of 600 dollars. Of this, 100 dollars was paid in property at the time of the sale, and as Drake alleges was received by Thorpe. For the residue of the purchase money Lyons executed six notes, four for 100 dollars each, and two for 50 dollars, three of them made payable to Drake and three to Thorpe.
But the court furthermore considering that the contract of rescission was proved, and that Drake had no right to require Lyons to pay the 100 dollar note, gave Lyons a decree over against Drake for the amount thereof. From this decree Drake has appealed, and assigns as error, that Thorpe, who united in the sale of the land, was a necessary party, before the court could rescind the contract. The court did not rescind ox cancel the contract: the bill alleged that the contract had been, rescinded by the parties; the title bond and
But Drake avers there was an agreement at the time of the rescission personal to himself, with which Thorpe had no concern, by which Lyons assumed to pay the note he had assigned to Farrow. To the decision of this controversy growing out of the rescission of the contract of sale, it was not necessary that Thorpe should have been a party; and there was no error in proceeding to hear the cause without requiring him to be made a party.
It is further assigned as error that the court had no authority to rescind, and that it did not rescind, the contract of rescission. These objections have already been answered. The court was not called upon to rescind and did not rescind because that contract had been fully executed. Upon the merits as between Drake and Lyons, if the latter did agree to pay the assigned note as alleged by Drake, the burden of proof was on him to show it, and he has failed to do so. Every presumption is against the pretension that Lyons who had already lost the 100 dollars paid at the time of the purchase, should have agreed to pay still more to be relieved from a purchase he was unable to complete.
But we think there was error in decreeing that Lyons should recover from Drake the 100 dollars, and that he might at once enforce payment thereof by exe
Concurring Opinion
I concur in the decree, except that I think the appellee Lyons should have his costs as the party substantially prevailing, on the principle of the case of Handly v. Snodgrass, 9 Leigh 484, and the cases therein referred to, especially the case of Roberts v. Jordans, 3 Munf. 488.
The decree of the court was as follows:
The court is of opinion there is no error in so much of the decree as dissolved the injunction and dismissed the hill as to all the defendants except the appellant; or as adjudged and ordered that the appellee Lyons
Reference
- Status
- Published