Easton, Eldrige & Co. v. Millington

Citations

• 105 Cal. 49
• 38 P. 509
• 1894 Cal. LEXIS 1108

Syllabus

<p>Vendor and Purchaser—Contract of Sale—Agreement with Real Estate Agent—Agency—Specific Performance.—A contract in writing delivered to a real estate agent, agreeing to sell and give full title and deed of the owner’s interest in a certain lot and improvements, at a specified price, the buyer to assume a mortgage on the property, and agreeing that certain stock in a loan association pledged with the mortgage is to be assigned to the purchaser, together with the insurance on the property, but not naming any purchaser, and accompanied by an order in writing to his tenants to pay the rents of the property to the real estate agent, merely gives to the agent authority to sell the premises, and is not a sufficient basis for an action by the real estate agent to compel the owner specifically to perform the contract as a contract to convey the premises to the real estate agent.</p> <p>Id.—Want of Certainty and Mutuality—Discretion of Court.—Such contract is not sufficiently certain and mutual to warrant the equitable remedy of specific performance, which is always addressed to the discretion of the court, and will not be sustained when the contract is not clearly mutual and certain both as to subject matter and parties.</p> <p>Id.—Authority of Agent to Sell—Revocation.—Where a real estate agent has authority to sell land, if no time is stated within which the sale can be made, the authority is revocable at the will of the owner, at any time before it has been exercised.</p>