Sylvester v. Born

Citations

• 132 Pa. 467
• 19 A. 337
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 840

Syllabus

<p>1. When time is not of the essence of the contract, either expressly or from the very nature of the subject, equity will specifically enforce an agreement to sell real estate, notwithstanding the vendee has not tendered performance within the time limited therefor, unless there has been gross laches on his part, or a change of circumstances rendering such enforcement inequitable.</p> <p>2. An enhancement in the price of lands in the neighborhood, subsequent to the date of the contract, does not constitute such a change of circumstances, when it appears to have arisen from the making of a number of purchases by the vendee, and not from a general demand for property, and no perceptible rise is shown to have occurred during the period of the vendee’s delay.</p> <p>(a) The defendant g’ave to the plaintiff a receipt for $50, deposited to secure the consummation of an agreement for the sale by the former to the latter of certain described real estate, the terms of sale being stated in the receipt to be that the price, $6,000, should be paid in cash upon the delivery of a deed to the plaintiff within sixty days from date.</p> <p>(b) The receipt stipulated further that the deposit should be returned in default of such conveyance within sixty days, or, on failure to make settlement within said time, it should be forfeited and treated as liquidated damages; otherwise, to be treated as part of the purchase money and credited thereon in the settlement:</p> <p>3. The contract set out in this receipt was not a mere unilateral agreement, nor such a contract as equity would not enforce specifically; the receipt having been signed by the vendor and delivered to and accepted by the vendee, it created a binding contract specifically enforceable by the latter, notwithstanding that it was not signed by him.</p> <p>4. Whether lime was of the essence of this contract or not, equity would not so treat it when the parties themselves did not, and when the first intimation from the vendor