Kutz's Estate

Citations

• 259 Pa. 548
• 103 A. 293
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 448

Syllabus

<p>Equity — Contract for sale of real estate — Specific performance— Laches — Failure to malee tender — Refusal.</p> <p>1. Tender of performance on the part of the plaintiff is prerequisite to a decree for specific performance of a contract for the sale of real estate.</p> <p>2. In a suit for specific performance, the plaintiff must show he has performed, or was ready to perform his part of the contract, and that he has not been guilty of laches or unreasonable delay, and where the proof leaves the case doubtful the plaintiff is not entitled to a decree.</p> <p>3. The granting of specific performance by a chancellor is a matter of grace, not of right.</p> <p>4. In a proceeding in the Orphans’ Court to compel specific performance of a contract for the sale of real estate owned by a decedent, where it appeared that the relief was not sought for more than three years after performance was due under the contract, that the petitioner was a corporation whose board had by resolution previously granted decedent and others leave to withdraw from the contract; that no tender of the consideration was made by the petitioner; that there was no resolution of the board authorizing the institution of the proceedings and many stockholders of the petitioner were opposed thereto, and where if the decree prayed for should be granted, a purchase-money mortgage would have to be given upon which foreclosure proceedings would in all probability have been necessary in the near future causing delay and inconvenience and expense, the court was not in error in refusing the relief prayed for.</p>