Aspinwall v. Balch

Citations

• 7 Daly 200
• 4 Abb. N. Cas. 193

Syllabus

<p>A purchaser at a foreclosure sale, is not obliged to bear the loss occasioned to the premises by a fire occurring intermediate the time when the premises are bid off by him and the time at which he becomes entitled to a deed; but he is not entitled to be relieved from his contract of purchase in consequence of tlieXIamage to the premises occasioned by such a fire, where the damage is comparatively slight, and a fall and adequate compensation for it is offered to him.</p> <p>Where the premises were situated on Broadway in the city of New York, and had been bid off for $62,500, and the value of the premises consisted chiefly in the value of the laud, the building upon it being old and dilapidated, adding very little to the value of the land', and intermediate the day of the sale, and the day when the purchaser was entitled to a deed, the building was- damaged by fire to the amount, as estimated by competent appraisers, of $125.</p> <p>3-Ield, that the purchaser was not entitled to be relieved from his bid, but that upon the premises being repaired, or an adequate compensation therefor being tendered him, he was bound to pay the purchase price.</p> <p>Held, further, however, that an offer to transfer to the purchaser a contract of insurance on the premises for an amount sufficient to cover the loss was not a good\\tender of compensation.</p> <p>The test as to whether or not, in case of damage to or destruction of the buildings on the premises before the day for the delivery of the deed, the purchaser is entitled to be relieved from liis bid, is whether the substantial inducement to the purchase lias failed, and this cannot be predicated where a slight damage has been done to the buildings by fire, which can he readily compensated for out of the purchase money or otherwise.</p>