Tiernan v. Granger

Citations

• 65 Ill. 351

Syllabus

<p>1. Specific performance—contract must T)e proved as laid. On bill for the specific performance of a contract, whether it be for the sale of land or the giving of a chattel mortgage to secure an indebtedness, the contract must be proved as laid in the bill; and where the decree finds the contract materially and substantially different from the one stated, the error will be fatal.</p> <p>% Statute of frauds—what will take case out of. A contract by which the complainant was to sell and set up for the defendants certain machinery and fixtures, to be paid for in installments, the last of which was to fall due fourteen months after the date of the contract, the payments to be secured by chattel mortgage on the machinery when set up, is within the statute of frauds; but if the defendants, being insolvent, should, under such agreement, obtain the machinery and fixtures, and then refuse^ to give the mortgage, it would be a fraud upon the complainant for which he could have no adequate remedy at law, and a court of equity would not only take jurisdiction, but would not permit the defendant to avail of the statute.</p> <p>8. Evidence—to vary written contract. Where a party, in his pleading, sets up and relies on a contract reduced to writing, he will not be allowed, by parol evidence, to show a different contract in essential particulars.</p> <p>4. Vendor and vendee—measure of seller's recovery. There is no recognized principle upon which the seller, either in an action at law for damages, or in equity for specific performance, can be placed in a better position than he would have occupied, if the purchaser had performed.</p>