McDonald v. Minnick

Citations

• 147 Ill. 651
• 35 N.E. 367

Syllabus

<p>1. Deeds—delivery—intention, essential. The very essence of the delivery of a deed is the intention of the parties. If a party, under a contract for the exchange of lands, makes a manual delivery of his deed, with the understanding that he is to receive in exchange a warranty deed, and immediately upon discovering that he has not received such a deed demands the return of the deed made by him, there will be no delivery of his deed, within the meaning of the law.</p> <p>2. Same—enjoining the recording of undelivered deed and ordering its return. Where the grantee in a deed obtains its possession without its legal delivery by the grantee, the latter may have a decree restraining the grantee from recording the same, and ordering its return to the maker.</p> <p>3. Specific performance—performance by the petitioner. A general offer to perform a contract for the sale or exchange of land by the complainant in a bill for specific performance, is insufficient. He must allege and prove that, using due diligence before the filing of his bill, he has performed all that the contract requires him to do.</p> <p>4. Where there is nothing in a contract for the exchange of land to justify the presumption that the parties contemplated an exchange of the property described, by mere quitclaim deeds or special warranties, and the proof fails to show that deeds of the latter kind were afterwards agreed on by the parties, the tender of a special warranty deed by one of the parties will not be sufficient to entitle him to a decree for the specific performance of the contract.</p> <p>5. Same—matter of sound legal discretion. A court of equity will decree the specific performance of a contract only where, in the exer.cise of a sound legal discretion, it finds, from all the circumstances, the specific performance will subserve the ends of justice. It is never decreed as a matter of course, even when a legal contract is shown to exist.</p> <p>6. Contract—whether void—where no fraud is shown.