Tracy v. Tracy's Heirs

Citations

• 14 W. Va. 243
• 1878 W. Va. LEXIS 64

Syllabus

<p>1. Where the prooí shows, that a purchaser of a tract of land under a parol contract for the sale thereof, has been put into possession thereof by the vendor pursuant to the contract, and payment of the purchase money has been made according to the terms of the contract, and valuable improvements have been made on the land by the purchaser on faith of the contract, and the purchaser has held continuously peaceable posses- • sion thereof for over twenty years, the statute of frauds cannot be successfully pleaded in bar to the specific performance of the contract in a court of equity.</p> <p>2. It is error for the court, under such circumstances, to declare by its decree, that the contract was not fully established, and to undertake to make a contraet and enforce it against the plaintiff, not set up by the pleading, and not justified by proof as a contract between the vendor and vendee.</p> <p>3. Where the court is satisfied; and so declares by its decree, that certain parties “have no title or color of title to the said ‘Maud Hollow’ tract of land, the same not being embraced in the trust deed, under which they purchased,” they having litigated their pretensions in that respect by their answers to plaintiff’s bill, the court should have decreed costs against them.</p>