Ankeny v. Clark

Citations

• 148 U.S. 345
• 13 S. Ct. 617
• 37 L. Ed. 475
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2235

Syllabus

<p>When one party to a special contract not under seal refuses to perform his side of the contract, or disables himself from performing it by his own act, tlie other party has thereupon a right to elect to rescind it, and may, on doing so, immediately sue on a quantum'meruit for anything he had done under it previously to the rescission.</p> <p>This doctrine was supported by the Supreme Court of the Territory of Washington in this case, and is now sustained by this court, notwithstanding the decision of the Supreme Court of the State of Washington in Distler v. Dabney, 23 N. W. Rep. 335, construing the code of that State-adversely to it.</p> <p>Stutsman County v. iWallace, 142 U. S. 293, explained and distinguished from this case.</p> <p>Judgments of Territorial Courts in mere matters of procedure áre not sub-.ject to reversal because of decisions made in subsequent cases by the courts of the State, after its admissiou, while the former cases were pending on appeal in this court.</p> <p>Defects in the pleadings in this case, if any, not having been questions below, cannot operate here to invalidate the trial there.</p> <p>A title derived from a land grant railroad company which has not received a patent, by reason of failure to pay the costs of surveying, is not a title which a party who has contracted for a deed of the land and has paid the purchase price therefor, is obliged to accept.</p> <p>When a contract is entered into to convey and to purchase a tract of land, and title fails as to part of it, the purchaser may rescind the contract as to all.</p> <p>When part of a contract of purchase of land is that the purchaser shall assume and pay a mortgage thereon, if the title to a part of it fails he may rescind the contract without paying the mortgage.</p> <p>When a contract to convey land permits the purchaser to enter and occupy, and he does so and makes the payments prescribed by the contract, and the seller fails to convey by the agreed title, the seller cannot,