Windust v. Sutton
Windust v. Sutton
Opinion of the Court
In 1895, the respondent, Maude Sutton, entered into a contract with the Northern Pacific Railway Company, by which she agreed to purchase from the railroad company, and the company agreed to sell to her, lots 2 and 3, in township 26, north, of range 45, east of the Willamette Meridian, at the agreed price of $80.25 for lot 2, and $80.10 for lot 3, to be paid in five equal annual installments, with interest on the deferred payments. Lot 2 contained 32.10 acres, and lot 3, 53.40 acres, according to the government surveys. Some two years after the contract had been entered into, the appellant applied to the respondent to purchase an interest in the land. The parties subsequently entered into* an oral contract by the terms of which the respondent contracted to sell the appellant some part- of the land covered by the two descriptions, but as to what part the parties do not agree; and the controversy between them on this point forms, the subject-matter of this action.
On the question of fact presented by the record, we think it clear that the respondent, at the time she entered into the contract with the appellant, understood that she was agreeing to convey to the appellant lot 2, with the qualification above mentioned, for the price she had agreed to pay the railroad company for that lot. The dividing line between lots 2 and 3 had not then been projected on the ground, and neither the appellant nor the respondent knew where it would r.un when actually marked out. Both of them seem to have thought that the dividing line was farther south than it actually proved to be, but the respondent thought the line when surveyed would mark the boundary between the two lots, unless, as she explains, it should cut off her right of access to the tract she retained. On the other hand, we think it equally clear that the appellant understood that she was to receive one-half of the entire area, and that she accepted the deed to lot 2 as a partial fulfillment of the contract only, intending to insist upon and enforce a conveyance of a part of lot 3 equal
The evidence is voluminous, and it would serve no useful purpose to enter upon a review of it here. On the record the judgment is right and will stand affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- B. E. A. Windust v. Maude Sutton
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Specific Performance — Contract — Assent — Area — Evidence. Where the minds of a vendor and vendee did not meet as to the exact tract of acreage intended to be bought and sold, the vendee cannot sue to recover additional acreage on evidence that would simply have entitled her to a rescission of the contract.