Williams v. Hillman Investment Co.
Williams v. Hillman Investment Co.
Opinion of the Court
Defendant executed a contract for the sale of certain real estate to one Marguerite Foy, and subsequently executed a like contract for the same property to this plaintiff, and represented to him that Miss Foy had defaulted in her payments, that her contract had lapsed and was void, and that she was absent from the state. Plaintiff, believing and relying upon these representations, made payments monthly upon the property for about a year, and then tendered to the defendant the balance due upon his contract and demanded a deed to the premises. Defendant declined to.furnish said deed, and claimed that he had been unable to secure from Miss Foy a release of her rights under her contract.
The trial court found that Miss Foy had been making her payments regularly as called for by her contract, and was living in the state, all of which was unknown to plaintiff, and that he had no means of ascertaining such facts. Defendant
The only question presented upon the appeal is that touching the correctness of the measure of damages and the amount of the judgment. Appellant maintains, (1) that respondent is entitled to recover only the amount of the money paid upon his contract together with legal interest; (2) that if this is not the correct measure of damages, then it should be the difference between the value of the property at the time the deed was demanded and the amount then due from respondent. It appearing that the appellant was guilty of misrepresentation, and that this misrepresentation had to do with facts within its own knoAvledge, but Avhich were not and could not in the ordinary course of conduct be ascertained by the respondent, but which were well calculated to deceive and mislead a man of ordinary business prudence, Ave think that the measure of damages Avas the difference between the value of the property at the time the deed was demanded and the amount of the balance then due from respondent; that respondent had his choice of asking such damages or of receiving back his money with legal interest thereupon. In other words, the re
Hadley, C. J., Crow, Mount, and Fullerton, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Paul Williams v. Hillman Investment Company
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Vendor and Purchaser — -Failure to Convey — Measure oe Damages. The measure of damages for failure of a vendor to convey real estate sold, where the sale was induced hy false representations of the vendor which the vendee had a right to rely upon, is the difference between the value of the property at the time of demand for a d,eed and the amount of the balance then due from the vendee.