Ford v. J. A. Street

Citations

• 129 Va. 437
• 106 S.E. 379
• 1921 Va. LEXIS 107

Syllabus

<p>1. Specific Performance — Certainty of Contract — Case at Barr.— In the instant case, a suit for specific performance, complainant obtained from defendant an option to buy certain real property at the price of $10,000. Before this option was closed the house on the property was destroyed by fire, and a new contract was entered into by which defendant agreed to sell the property to complainant for $10,000, payable $100 in cash, $8,000 payable by and when the insurance was collected for the fire, and on a day certain, upon the delivery of a good and sufficient deed the remainder of the $10,000 not paid by the insurance company, making the total sum of $10,000 to defendant when the property was fully paid for. Before this contract was made, both parties had inquired of the insurance agent as to the precise amount of the insurance upon the building destroyed, and were informed that it was $8,000. However, it afterwards developed that the insurance was $9,000.00.</p> <p>Held: This contract of sale was not unenforceable because of uncertainty, as each of the parties clearly understood that of the $10,000 which the vendor was to receive thereunder, $8,000 was to come from the proceeds of the insurance policies and $2,000 was to be paid by the vendee.</p> <p>2. Contracts — Construction—Surrounding Circumstances. — In order properly to construe every agreement, it is the duty of the court, as nearly as may be, to place itself in the position of the parties.</p> <p>3. Specific Performance — Certainty of Contract — Mutual Mistake. —In the instant case the trial court erred in decreeing that the vendee was entitled to a credit for $9,000 upon the purchase price because there happened to be $9,000 of insurance upon the improvements. The vendee cannot be allowd to profit by the mutual mistake of the parties as to the true amount of insurance. At the time the sale was made the entire proceeds of the insurance policy, subject to the liens upon the property, belonged to the vendo