Cusick v. Meyer

863 P.2d 486, 124 Or. App. 515, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 1892, 1993 WL 474894
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedNovember 17, 1993
DocketA8601-00306; CA A70470
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 863 P.2d 486 (Cusick v. Meyer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cusick v. Meyer, 863 P.2d 486, 124 Or. App. 515, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 1892, 1993 WL 474894 (Or. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

ROSSMAN, P. J.

Plaintiffs appeal from a judgment for defendants after trial of plaintiffs’ statutory ejectment claim. This is the second time that this matter has come before us. In our first opinion, Cusick v. Meyer, 98 Or App 358, 359, 779 P2d 198 (1989), we held that the trial court had erred in granting summary judgment to plaintiffs and in awarding them attorney fees. We remanded the case for trial of plaintiffs’ ejectment claim. We now review the trial court’s decision on remand. Because a claim of ejectment is an action at law, we review to determine whether the trial court’s findings are supported by any competent evidence and for errors of law. Roesch v. Wachter, 48 Or App 893, 896, 618 P2d 448 (1980).

Plaintiffs were the owners of a residence on an oversized lot in Portland. The trial court found that, in 1981, they partitioned the property into two parcels, Parcel I containing the house and land, and Parcel II containing land only. The evidence supports the trial court’s finding that the property was partitioned at that time. Because real property taxes on the property were delinquent at the time of the partition, the partition was not reflected on the assessment rolls or on property tax statements. The omission did not affect the completion of the partition, however.

In the fall of 1984, defendants offered to purchase plaintiffs’ home and real property for $155,000. Plaintiffs agreed to the price. The agreement between the parties was structured as a two-year lease with an option to purchase. Plaintiffs had the option to partition the property and to retain Parcel II for their own personal use.1

[518]*518Under the agreement, if defendants exercised their option to purchase the property, defendants would be the owners of the entire property, unless plaintiffs partitioned the property within two months of the execution of the agreement, in which case defendants would be the owners of Parcel I and plaintiffs would be the owners of Parcel II. Parcel I has access to the street; Parcel II does not. In order to provide access to the street, defendants agreed to grant plaintiffs a reasonable vehicle easement across the southwest border of Parcel I. Plaintiffs’ exercise of their right to partition the property and retain Parcel II would not have affected the purchase price.

When the parties executed the agreement on December 7, 1984, the property was encumbered by a real property tax lien and by a mortgage evidenced by two installment notes from First Interstate Bank totalling $68,163. In order to exercise their option, defendants were required to pay plaintiffs $15,000 cash on or before December 1, 1986. Plaintiffs were required to apply $7,727.89 of that amount to satisfy the tax lien. If defendants timely exercised their option to purchase, the transaction would close on December 1, 1986. At that time, defendants were required to pay to plaintiffs $25,000 cash and to either assume the First Interstate Bank notes and execute a promissory note to plaintiffs in the amount of $42,622.62 or pay plaintiffs the balance in cash. The agreement required plaintiffs to provide defendants with title insurance at plaintiffs’ expense. It also contained a provision for attorney fees to the prevailing party in any action brought to enforce the terms of the agreement. The agreement made no mention of the 1981 partition, and plaintiffs did not inform defendants that they had previously partitioned the property. Plaintiffs put on evidence that, until 1987, they were not certain that their attempts to partition the property in 1981 had been successful. The trial court on remand found that plaintiffs knew that the property had been partitioned at the time they executed the agreement with defendants.

Defendants exercised their option to purchase the property on December Í4, 1984. The parties had established an escrow with United States National Bank of Oregon. Defendants deposited the $15,000 option price in escrow, and, [519]*519as contemplated by the agreement, plaintiffs executed a statutory warranty deed to the entire property and placed it in escrow for defendants. The escrow instructions require delivery of the deed to defendants on receipt of notice of intent to exercise the option and on payment of the purchase price no later than December 1, 1986. The instructions contained no provision accounting for the conditional definition of the term “premises” as used in the agreement or for the possible partition of the property.

In August, 1985, defendants began to construct a fence around Parcels I and II. Plaintiffs objected, claiming that they owned Parcel II. Defendants informed plaintiffs that they had failed to exercise their option to partition the property within the two-month period provided by the agreement. Plaintiffs requested an extension of that option, and defendants refused.

Plaintiffs consulted their attorney, and told him that they thought they had completed the partition of the property in 1981. In an effort to verify the existence of the partition, the attorney obtained reports from two title companies, and both reported that the property had not been partitioned. Plaintiffs’ attorney advised them that the partition was not complete.

In January, 1986, plaintiffs filed their original complaint in this proceeding, seeking, among other things, to reform the agreement and to eject defendants, on the grounds of fraud, misrepresentation or mistake regarding the inclusion in the agreement of the two-month limitation on plaintiffs’ right to partition the property. Defendants’ answer denied that plaintiffs were entitled to Parcel II. Defendants counterclaimed for breach of contract, contending that plaintiffs had failed to make repairs they had agreed to perform within 90 days of the date the agreement was executed.

In December, 1986, after the filing of this proceeding, the transaction closed as scheduled, despite the pendency of the litigation. Defendants paid into escrow $25,000 in cash, assumed plaintiffs’ two installment notes with First Interstate Bank, and executed a promissory note payable to plaintiffs in the sum of $42,622.62. Escrow recorded and released the statutory warranty deed to defendants that plaintiffs had [520]*520executed in 1984. In February, 1987, at defendants’ request, plaintiffs delivered a revised statutory warranty deed to escrow to include a land use disclaimer. In April, 1987, plaintiffs amended their complaint to include an allegation that the property had been partitioned in 1981. That is the complaint on which the case was tried.

On remand, the court concluded that plaintiffs had waived any right they might have had under the terms of the agreement to retain title to Parcel II by delivering the statutory warranty deeds in December, 1986, and February, 1987, knowing that the property had been previously partitioned. The court declared defendants to be the owners of both Parcel I and Parcel II. Additionally, the court granted judgment to defendants for $200 on their counterclaim for breach of contract, declared defendants to be the prevailing party and awarded them attorney fees, costs and disbursements of $94,682.

Assuming, for the purpose of this appeal alone, that the partition that plaintiffs accomplished in 1981 meets the terms of the agreement and provides the prerequisite for plaintiffs’ retention of Parcel II, the first question is whether plaintiffs have given up their interest in Parcel II by deeding the entire property to defendants.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
863 P.2d 486, 124 Or. App. 515, 1993 Ore. App. LEXIS 1892, 1993 WL 474894, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cusick-v-meyer-orctapp-1993.