Cohn v. Mitchell

Citations

• 115 Ill. 124
• 3 N.E. 420

Syllabus

<p>1. Specific performance—discretion in granting relief. Courts of equity have large discretion in cases of specific performance; but such discretion is a judicial one, and subject to review when relief is denied in a case clearly within the general principles of equity jurisdiction. It results from this that every ease of specific performance depends in a great degree upon its owm special circumstances.</p> <p>2. Same—as to contracts relating to personal property. As a general rule a court of equity will not decree the specific performance of a contract relating to personal property, unless there is some element or feature in it to show that the relief at law may not be adequate,—as, when the measure of damages resulting from the non-performance of the agreement is uncertain dr difficult to ascertain, or when the thing contracted for has to the complainant some intrinsic or special value, and the like caBfes.</p> <p>. 3. Same—of performance, or an offer to perform, as essential to the right to relief.' To entitle a party to relief by specific performance, he must show that he has performed, or at least offered to perform, the agreement on his part; and if an offer, only, is relied on, it must have been made within a reasonable time, or some sufficient excuse shown for not doing so.</p> <p>4. In this case, several loans of money were made upon the security of certain shares of stock in a private corporation, hypothecated,by the borrower, under an agreement for a renewal of the notes given upon the same terms as the original. The borrower made no offer to renew the notes until the first one was about four months past due, and no new notes were prepared and tendered, and the only excuse for not making the tender was the fact that the notes for a part of the time were in the hands of another. It-was held, that the borrower was not entitled to a decree for the specific performance of the agreement for renewal, and that the excuse for not tendering the renewal notes in