Lancaster v. Roberts

Citations

• 144 Ill. 213
• 33 N.E. 27

Syllabus

<p>1. Contract of sale — failure of vendor to comply—option of vendee. A contract for the sale of land provided that the purchaser should be furnished with a complete abstract of the title, and that in case the title should be found to be materially defective within ten days thereafter, then unless such defects should be cured within sixty days after written notice thereof, the earnest money should be refunded, and the contract become void. Held, that on the failure of the vendor to obviate the defects in the title within sixty days after notice, the purchaser had the right to treat the contract as inoperative and demand the return of the cash payment, or to tender the balance of the purchase money and demand a deed of the premises, in the exercise of his legal option to take the defective title.</p> <p>2. Same —promises by vendor to cure defective title — waiver as to time. — If the vendor, from time to time, after the lapse of the sixty days, promises to cure the defects in the title, which promises are accepted, this will amount to an arrangement between the parties for an extension of the time fixed by the contract for the curing of the defective title, and such arrangement will involve a waiver on the part of the vendor of the requirement that the purchaser should either take back the earnest money or pay the balance of the purchase money at the expiration of the sixty days. Time, though the essence of a contract, may be waived.</p> <p>3. Same—signing by a third person not named therein. Where a third person merely annexes his name to a contract, which in the body of it does not mention him, and which is in itself a complete contract between other parties who sign it and are mentioned in it, such third person does not thereby become a party to the efficient and operative parts of the contract. His signature can only be regarded as an expression of his assent to the act of the parties making the contract, and may perhaps operate as an estoppel against his assert