Maloy v. Sloan
Maloy v. Sloan
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
We do not find the contract, which the orator claims to have made with the defendant, Mary, at the time of her marriage with the defendant, Richard, and which he seeks to have enforced by a decree of specific performance,' established by the proof. The orator alone testifies to the contract. The defendant, Mary, as positively denies it. Mary Doan, before whom the pai’ties, at one time, had some talk about the matter, corroborates the story and claim of the defendants rather than of the orator. To entitle the orator to a decree of specific performance, he must clearly establish the contract which he asks to have enforced. The orator having failed to establish the contract, we have no occasion for deciding whether the contract, if established, would have been barred by the statute of limitation.
The orator also claims that he is entitled to have the defendants’ suit at law, for the partition of the premises, conveyed to him and
The pro forma decree of the chancellor dismissing the bill is reversed, and the cause remanded, with a mandate to the court of chancery to order an account taken between the orator and the defendant, Mary, in which the defendant Mary is to be charged ^with one half of the purchase money, with interest, adding to the sum paid to the administrator the other debts against John Maloy, which the orator paid, and which were not included in the sum paid to the administrator ; also with one half of the taxes on the premises paid by the orator, with interest, and one half of the present value of the permanent improvements, including the buildings and the improved condition of the land, and also with the value of the property belonging to the orat or, which the orator allowed her to take at the time of her marriage with the defendant, Richard, with interest’. She is to be credited with whatever she has paid, if anything, towards the purchase money or improvements, by her labor while living with the orator, with one half of the rents, profits, and use of the premises in the condition they were when purchased; and also with one half of whatever wood or timber may have been sold or taken by the orator from the
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Moses Maloy v. Richard and Mary Sloan
- Status
- Published