Long v. Chandler

Citations

• 10 Del. Ch. 339
• 92 A. 256
• 1914 Del. Ch. LEXIS 24

Syllabus

<p>Specific performance of a contract for the sale of land is favored because of the character of the subject-matter of the agreement, and while the power to decree specific performance is exercised in the discretion of the court, in a clear case it is freely exercised.</p> <p>An outstanding inchoate right of dower is an “incumbrance,” so that a vendor cannot convey a free and clear title unless his wife executes the deed with him, or otherwise waives or releases her dower.</p> <p>No decree for specific performance can be made to affect the rights of the wife of a vendor who was not a party to his contract, and is not a party to the suit.</p> <p>Where a vendor is unable to convey a good and unincumbered title according to his agreement, the vendee generally has a right to specific performance with an abatement of the purchase price, but not unless the compensation for the defects can be ascertained with reasonable accuracy.</p> <p>A defect in the title of a vendor is not a defense to a suit for specific performance by the purchaser, if the purchaser chooses to accept the defective title without abatement in the price.</p> <p>Where the wife of a vendor who did not join in his contract of sale refuses to join in a conveyance, or to release her dower rights, the court cannot make a decree of specific performance requiring the vendor to obtain a release of her rights under penalty of imprisonment for failure to do so, as this would clearly be an unjust coercion of the wife’s volition.</p> <p>Where a vendor’s wife who did not join in his contract of sale refused to join in the deed, or to release her dower rights, specific performance with an abatement in price, because of the existence of her rights, could not be decreed, since because the quantum of her rights is not acsertainable until the husband’s death, and because of the double - contingency of her survivorship of him, the present money value of her rights cannot be fairly and justly estimated, especially where it