Leonard v. Crane

Citations

• 147 Ill. 52
• 35 N.E. 474

Syllabus

<p>1. Homestead—requisites to conveyance. The estate of homestead can be relinquished only in the mode pointed out in the statute, or by abandonment. To pass such estate the deed must contain a clause waiving the right of homestead, and a similar clause must be contained in the acknowledgment of both husband and wife.</p> <p>2. Same—proof in bill to restore a deed for a homestead,. Where a bill is filed to restore a deed, by which a conveyance of a homestead is sought to be consummated, the proof must be such as to show a deed sufficient to convey the homestead, not only by evidence of the relinquishment of the homestead in the body of the deed, but the certificate of acknowledgment must also contain a relinquishment of the homestead, acknowledged by both the husband and wife.</p> <p>3. In the absence of proof that the acknowledgment of a deed by a husband and wife, of their homestead, which is destroyed, contained a clause relinquishing the homestead right, a court of equity can not decree the title as vested in the grantee by reason of the execution of the deed shown by the evidence.</p> <p>4. Specific pbbfobmanoe—when refused. A court of equity will not decree the specific performance of a contract, when it is founded in fraud, imposition or mistake, or when it will be unconscientious to enforce it.</p> <p>5. It is not necessary, to authorize the court to refuse a specific performance, that the agreement shall be so tainted with fraud as to authorize a decree that it be delivered up and canceled on that account. Specific performance will not be decreed unless the agreement has been entered into with perfect fairness, and without misapprehension, misrepresentation or oppression.</p> <p>6. Same—discretionary. An application for the specific execution ■of a contract is addressed to the sound legal discretion of the court, and it is not a matter of course that it will be decreed because a legal contract is shown to exist.</p> <p>7. Where a wife was induced to join wi