Arbogast v. Johnson

Citations

• 80 Wash. 537
• 141 P. 1140

Syllabus

<p>Frauds, Statute of—Contracts for Sale of Real Estate—Execution—Sufficiency. A memorandum of purchase of certain described real estate, signed by the purchaser, “subject to the owner’s approval,” but not signed by the owner, nor even disclosing his name though signed by an agent authorized orally to find a purchaser, does not constitute a contract of sale of land within the terms of Rem. & Bal. Code, §§ 8745, 8746, requiring contracts for the conveyance of real estate to be “in writing signed by the party bound thereby;” since the purchaser is the only party bound by the terms of the contract.</p> <p>Same—Sale of Real Estate—Contract of Agent—Ratification. Ratification of a sale of real estate made by an agent for the owner, which was unenforceable under the statute of frauds, is not shown by the act of the owner in receiving the earnest money paid to his agent by the purchaser who was a tenant of the owner, but declining to approve the sale and applying the money on the rent due, nor by the further fact that the owner gave his agent an abstract of title to deliver to the prospective purchaser, coupled .with the understanding that it was not to be delivered until the payment of an additional specified sum as earnest money.</p> <p>Same—Pleadings—Issues and Proof. A party to an action may invoke the application of the statute of frauds without pleading it, where the contract in issue is set out in full in the pleadings and shows on its face that it is such a contract as is required by law to be in writing.</p>