Smith v. Detroit & D. Gold Min. Co.

Citations

• 17 S.D. 413
• 97 N.W. 17
• 1903 S.D. LEXIS 69

Syllabus

<p>1. An agreement for the purchase of mining clains stipulated, that, if adverse claims were established to any portion of the land embraced in the agreement, the price would be reduced pro rata. The purchaser at the time of securing the option knew, that title to portions of the land was in dispute. The seller claimed to own all the land included in the agreement, but some ground was subsequently adjudged to be the property of another. The agreement also made mistakes in the boundries of certain lodes. ’ Held, that the purchasei was not entitled ■ to rescind the agreement.</p> <p>2. Under Rev. Civ. Code 1903, § 1285, requiring a party, in order to accomplish a rescisión of a contract, to act promptly on discovering the facts entitling him to rescind, a purchaser under an option agreement, if entitled to rescind because the title to a portion of the land had been adjudged to be in a third person, lost his right to rescind by his failure to oiler to do so for about 15 months after discovering that such portion belonged to the third person.</p> <p>3. An agreement for the purchase of a mining claim cannot bo rescinded, after the selling price has greatly depreciated, by demonstrating its unproductiveness, as the purchaser cannot then restore to the seller everything of value which he received.</p> <p>4. The word “improvements,” in an agreement for the sale of mining claims, which stipulated that, if the purchaser failed to perform his agreements, -the improvements should become the property of the seller, as rent for the occupation of the premises by the purchaser, and as damages sustained by reason of a breach of the contract, includes removable betterments placed on the land by the purchaser, and which he might in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, takeaway.</p> <p>5. Under Rev. Civ. Code 1903, § 1275, providing that parties to h contract may agree on the amount of the damages sustained by a breach thereof, when, from the nature of the case, it would be di