Ditmars-31' Street Development Corp. v. Punia

17 A.D.2d 357, 235 N.Y.S.2d 796, 1962 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6681
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 3, 1962
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 17 A.D.2d 357 (Ditmars-31' Street Development Corp. v. Punia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ditmars-31' Street Development Corp. v. Punia, 17 A.D.2d 357, 235 N.Y.S.2d 796, 1962 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6681 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

Samuel Rabin, J.

The agreed statement of facts submitted On this controversy (Civ. Frac. Act, §§ 546-548) presents, as between purchaser and seller, an issue of law as to the construction of a written contract between them for the sale of real property. The amount of the purchase price required to be paid by the purchaser on the title closing and the consequent ownership of the escrow fund in suit depend upon the determination of such issue.

The facts, as set forth in the submission, are substantially as follows:

On January 26, i960, defendants Punía and Marx, copartners doing business as Limax Company, as the seller, entered into a written contract with plaintiff’s assignor, Jaesline Bealty Oorp., as the purchaser, for the sale of certain income-producing property in the Astoria section of Queens County. The purchase price was stipulated to he $979,810.25, payable $25,000 on contract; $225,000 on delivery of the deed; $383,060.33 and $346,-749.92 by the purchaser taking title subject to interest-bearing first and second mortgages which, on the contract date, had been reduced to these amounts. Copies of the two mortgage instruments were ‘4 exhibited to the attorney for the purchaser and initialed by him The first mortgage provided for quarterly [359]*359amortization payments and the second mortgage provided for monthly amortization payments in reduction of the principal. The closing date was fixed in the contract for April 26,1960.

With respect to the effect of interim amortization mortgage payments by the seller, the contract contained this provision (hereafter referred to as the ‘( amortization clause”): 16 The purchase price herein shall be reduced by the amount of any amortization payments required to be made and made by the seller on either the first or second mortgage or both between the date hereof and the date fixed herein for closing of title,”

The contract further provided that the following items shall be “ apportioned,” namely, rents, interest on mortgages, insurance premiums, taxes, sewer rents, water charges and fuel,

The contract also contained the following provision for deferring the closing (hereafter referred to as the 11 adjournment clause”); “In the event that the purchaser shall request an adjournment of the closing of title for a period not exceeding sixty (60) days, it shall pay the additional sum of $25,000.00 on account of the balance of the purchase price, and the same provisions shall apply as above stated, ’ ’

The contract fixed the closing date as April 26, I960, but the parties did not close title on that date; and the transaction remained inchoate until June 20, I960, On that date, by letter, the purchaser’s attorney tendered $25,000 as an additional deposit to be applied toward the purchase price, upon the expressed understanding that the closing was to be adjourned to August 26, I960, The seller agreed thereto in writing. Thereafter, by mutual consent indorsed on three similar letters, the title closing was further adjourned to October 26,1960, to December 2, 1960, and to January 6, 1961, With each of these three letters the purchaser paid an additional $25,000 deposit to be applied toward the purchase price,

The last of such adjournment letters or agreements, in language similar to that used in the earlier ones, contained the provision (hereafter referred to as the “ adjustment clause ”): u that all adjustments in accordance with the terms of the contract shall be as of the date of consummation of the transaction.” Between the original closing date of April 26, 1960 and the last adjourned date of January 6,1961, on which the closing was finally consummated, the seller, pursuant to the terms of the first and second mortgages, made amortization payments thereon totaling $13,810.98.

At the closing on January 6, 1961, the plaintiff, as the purchaser’s assignee, demanded that these amortization payments of $13,810.98 be credited to it in further reduction of the pur[360]*360chase price of $979,810.25 by virtue of the amortization clause quoted. The seller, however, took the position that under the contract the plaintiff was entitled to have the purchase price reduced only by the amount of the seller’s amortization payments made between January 26, 1960, the date of the contract, and April 26, 1960, the date originally set for the closing, without regard to such payments between the latter date and January 6, 1961, the final adjourned date on which the transaction was consummated.

In order that title might close despite their differences of opinion, the parties agreed that the plaintiff should deposit in escrow with Dreyer and Traub, Esqs., attorneys for the seller, the sum of $13,810.98, under a stipulation providing for the present submission of their controversy to this court. Such attorneys are now parties defendant to this submission; as escrowees they are subject to the jurisdiction of this court and will be required to disburse the escrow funds to such party as this court shall determine to be legally entitled thereto.

The precise question to be determined by us under this submission has been defined by the parties as follows: ‘ The controversy herein submitted for decision is whether or not upon the foregoing facts, plaintiff is entitled to have the purchase price of the property reduced by the sum of $13,810.98, the amount of the amortization payments made by Limax Company [the seller] on the first and second mortgages between April 26, 1960 and January 6, 1961, or whether Limax Company [the seller] is entitled to judgment in the amount of $13,810.98, said sum being the amortization payments made by * * * [it] from April 26, 1960 to January 6, 1961.”

The interrelation of mortgage payments and an adjournment past April 26, 1960 is not specifically referred to in any of the series of four letter-agreements under which adjournment was four times carried forward to January 6, 1961 by the well-seasoned and capable counsel for both parties. Of course, on the submission of a controversy, parol evidence as to the intention of the parties may not be considered. Neither may we draw evidentiary inferences from the agreed statement of facts; nor may we consider a statement of fact appearing only in the brief of a party, even if such statement be not disputed. On a statutory submission our function is confined to stating the legal conclusions flowing from the uncontroverted facts in the submission. (Employers Mut. Liab. Ins. Co. of Wisconsin v. Ætna Cas. & Sur. Co., 7 A D 2d 853, motion for leave to appeal denied 6 N Y 2d 705; Cormeny v. American Bosch Arma Corp., 7 A D 2d 912.)

[361]*361In effect, the parties on the present submission ask us merely to interpret the purport and effect of their writings. Apparently they have decided that there is no conflicting parol evidence available to them for submission to a trial court on the problem now presented to us.

It has been held that where the provisions of the writing made out an intelligible contract ” and where the facts were undisputed, there is no question of fact for the jury (Schoen v. Wagner, 1 App. Div. 298, 301). In the Schoen case (supra, p. 300) the court noted that the instrument before it seemed to be 1 ‘ reasonably clear in its terms and to require no explanation as to what the parties meant by their contract ”. Here, the contract is reasonably clear and the facts, as stated in the contract and in the submission are undisputed.

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17 A.D.2d 357, 235 N.Y.S.2d 796, 1962 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ditmars-31-street-development-corp-v-punia-nyappdiv-1962.