Kaplan v. Whitworth

Citations

• 116 La. 337
• 40 So. 723
• 1905 La. LEXIS 771

Syllabus

<p>1. Contract—Bond for Title—'Validity — Mutuality.</p> <p>An agreement whereby one of the parties binds himself to make to the other a bond for title, but the language of which imposes no obligation upon the other party, is not bilateral.</p> <p>[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see vol. 11, Cent. Dig. Contracts, §§ 21, 24.]</p> <p>2.‘Vendor and Purchaser—Sale Distinguished from Agreement to Sell.</p> <p>An agreement whereby one of the parties obligates himself to make to the other a bond for title can be considered a promise to sell, within the meaning of Civ. Code, art. 2462, only by holding that an agreement to do that which amounts to a sale amounts to a promise to sell. The law in question is, however, exceptional, and its application must be confined to the cases provided for, and cannot properly be extended to what may be considered the equivalents of those cases.</p> <p>3. Same—Essentials of Contract.</p> <p>In the promise to sell, as in the contract of sale, the thing, the price, and the consent are essentials.</p> <p>4. Same—Action for Breach.</p> <p>Though an agreement, alleged to have been repudiated in bad faith, may not fall within the category of enforceable contracts, it does not follow that a petition alleging such repudiation and actual loss sustained thereby may not set forth a cause of action for the recovery of such loss.</p> <p>On Rehearing.</p> <p>5. Contracts—Rescission.</p> <p>It is well settled that, where the understanding of the parties is that their contract shall be reduced to writing, the reduction to writing stands as a condition precedent to the perfection of the contract, and either party is at liberty to retire from the contract so long as the reduction to writing has not taken place; but there is nothing in this which prevents a licit future contract, whereof all the terms are fixed, from being made the subject of a present contract.</p> <p>[Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see vol. 11, Cent. Dig. Contracts, §§ 57, 107, 109.]</p> <p>6