Colorado Land & Water Co. v. Adams

5 Colo. App. 190
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 15, 1894
StatusPublished

This text of 5 Colo. App. 190 (Colorado Land & Water Co. v. Adams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colorado Land & Water Co. v. Adams, 5 Colo. App. 190 (Colo. Ct. App. 1894).

Opinion

Reed, J.

This was a suit brought for the specific performance of a contract. On the 28th day of January, 1890, appellant contemplated and intended to construct an extensive canal for irrigating purposes; the water to be disposed of by the sale of perpetual water rights, each for eighty acres of land. Appellee — being the owner of land which would be under the ditch, and desirous to secure water — on the date mentioned entered into a contract with appellant for the purchase of a right; taking the agreement, in parol, of appellant, to execute and deliver a deed at some future time, and executing and delivering a promissory note, of which the following is a copy :

“ $800. Rooky Ford, Colo., Jan. 28,1890.
“ April 1st, after date, for value received, I promise to pay to the order of The Colorado Land & Canal Company eight hundred dollars, with interest at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum from date until paid. And having deposited with [191]*191said Canal Company, as collateral security, one water right, I hereby authorize the said Canal Company or assigns, upon the nonpayment of this note, to sell said collateral at public or private sale, at its option, and without demand or notice.
“R. L. Adams.”

The canal had not been constructed, nor was appellant in a condition or prepared, at the time, to make conveyances.

The canal was not completed until July, 1891, although fifty-five miles was constructed hy November, 1890. For a history of the canal, and the change in the name of the corporation, etc., see Colorado Land & Water Co. v. Rocky Ford, etc., Co., 3 Colo. App. 545.

The water right to be deposited as collateral security, mentioned in the note, was shown and conceded to be the one purchased and to be received from the appellant.

The contract of appellant, as established by the evidence of its agent, Ament, who made it, was for a perpetual water right, of 1.44 cubic feet of water per second, from the 15th of April to the 1st of November of each year. The note was not paid at maturity, nor was any demand made for payment, nor any deed of the water right tendered. The land of appellee was some six miles from the line of the canal, and he, with others in the same vicinity, similarly situated, and under contracts with appellant, constructed a.lateral ditch.from the canal to their lands.

As shown by Mr. Ament (appellant’s agent), in the fall of 1890 appellee tendered to him the money in payment of his note, and demanded a deed for the water right.

He said: “ He came to me to settle up for the water, and get his water deed and contract.” “He tendered the money to me, but I preferred to have it deposited in the bank.” And appellee and he went to the hank, made the deposit, and instructed the cashier to pay it to appellant when it delivered to the hank a deed of the form and character conceded by the agent to be the conveyance agreed upon.

A deed was sent by the company, which was rejected by [192]*192appellee, and shown by all the evidence to have differed materially from the one contracted for.

The quantity of water conveyed was 1.08 cubic feet per second, instead of 1.44, reducing it by about one fourth, and the time the water was to be furnished in each season was reduced nearly one half.

It does not appear that the company at any time rescinded or denied the validity of the contracts, at all times expressing a willingness to take the agreed price. In a letter written by the president to Mr. Ament, his agent, on November 12, 1890, he said: “Regarding parties of whom you wrote, as having long since contracted for water at the old price, $800, I will say this company raised the price to $1,000 on or about Oct. 15th; but this' did not apply to any previous obligations, and parties who had previously contracted with you at $800 will be entitled to water at that price, if closed for at once.”

On December 23, 1890, Mr. Clark, the general manager, wrote the agent: “I have to advise you that the price of water from the canal of this company has been placed at $800, for each full-paid perpetual water right for eighty acres, consisting of the continuous flow during one hundred days of the irrigating season, of 1.08 cubic feet per second.”

There was no important controversy in regard to the facts. Appellant insisted on its right to deliver deeds modified as to time and quantity. Appellee insisted upon a compliance with the contract, brought this suit to compel specific performance, and for damages in the loss of crops for the failure to deliver the water.

The question of damage was tried to a jury, that found for the appellee in the sum of $240. The court found and decreed:

(1) That appellant became the owner of the note. Not being in a situation to comply with its contract for the delivery of water, it waived the payment of the note at maturity, and such waiver extended to the time it could deliver the water.

[193]*193(2) . That appellant contracted to furnish a perpetual water right, 1.44 cubic feet per second, and that it was to be furnished each year from the 15th of April until the 1st of November.

(3) That appellee, on December 12, 1890, made a proper tender of the amount due, and a legal demand for the conveyance.

(4) That the only deed tendered was for only 1.08 cubic feet per second, and for 100 days in each year.

Decreeing appellee entitled to specific performance; the deed to be made according to the contract, as to quantity and time ; the appellee to pay the 1800 and interest.

Judgment was entered for the sum as found by the jury, for damages.

The facts, as found by the court, are fully warranted by the evidence. Such facts being established, there can be no question of appellee’s right to recover such damages for breach o£ the contract as he was shown to have sustained, and the finding of the jury of the amount is conclusive. The errors assigned, are far more general than specific. They are, in effect, that the court erred, and that the decree should have been for the other party.

Only one legal question is necessary to be determined— whether this is one of that class of cases where specific performance of a contract should be decreed.

In this ease we are relieved of the necessity of examining the character of the interest contracted to be conveyed by appellant, whether real or personal, or partaking of the nature , of both.

The old rule, that the remedy must pertain to an interest in realty, has been relaxed, and modern decisions decree the performance where the subject-matter is purely personal. See 1 Story, Eq. Jur., secs. 724, 717.,

In Frue v. Houghton, 6 Colo. 318, the rule as to jurisdiction in equity is clearly stated to be: “ The ground of the jurisdiction, when assumed, is that the party seeking equitable relief cannot be fully compensated by an award of damages [194]*194at law. When, therefore, an award of damages would not put the plaintiff in a situation as beneficial as if the agreement were specifically performed, or where compensation in damages would fall short of the redress to which he is entitled, a specific performance may be decreed.” See Fry, Spec. Perf., sec. 10, and note; Pom. Spec. Perf., secs. 7, 8; 3 Pom. Eq. Jur., sec. 1402, and cases cited.

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Related

Frue v. Houghton
6 Colo. 318 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1882)
Rust v. Strickland
1 Colo. App. 215 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1891)
Sullivan v. Leer
2 Colo. App. 141 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1892)

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5 Colo. App. 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colorado-land-water-co-v-adams-coloctapp-1894.