Matthes v. Wier

Citations

• 10 Del. Ch. 63
• 84 A. 878
• 1912 Del. Ch. LEXIS 37

Syllabus

<p>The jurisdiction of a court of equity to require a vendor to specifically perform an executory contract to sell real estate rests on the inadequacy of any legal remedy and on the theory that the purchaser has acquired an equitable interest, which the court perfects by requiring the transfer of the legal estate.</p> <p>A purchaser in an executory contract for the sale of real estate acquires an equitable interest.</p> <p>An executory contract, to authorize specific performance, must be certain, unambiguous, mutual, supported by a valuable consideration, fair in all its parts, free from any misrepresentation,' fraud, mistake, imposition, or surprise, and its performance must not be oppressive, and it must be capable of specific execution through a decree of court.</p> <p>Where defendant alone has signed a memorandum required by the Statute of Frauds, the requisite mutuality essential to justify specific performance is supplied by complainant filing his bill for specific performance.</p> <p>An agreement to make a lease may be enforced in equity.</p> <p>An agreement to make a lease, as distinguished from a present oral lease, is within the Statute of Frauds, and must be in writing.</p> <p>A defendant in an action for the specific performance of an oral contract within the Statute of Frauds, who admits the agreement, but does not set up the statute, presumptively waives its protection; and where he admits the paroi agreement, and insists on the benefit of the statute by plea or answer, he will be entitled to it.</p> <p>Where the bill in a suit for specific performance of a contract sets tip an agreement invalid under the Statute of Frauds, unless in writing, and defendant by answer denies the agreement, he need not insist on the statute as a bar; but complainant at the hearing must establish the agreement by written evidence.</p> <p>WThere an oral contract for the sale or lease of land possesses the elements necessary to justify.specific performance, except the writte