Hammonds v. Buckeye Cellulose Corporation

285 So. 2d 7, 1973 Fla. LEXIS 4173
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedOctober 10, 1973
Docket43303
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 285 So. 2d 7 (Hammonds v. Buckeye Cellulose Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hammonds v. Buckeye Cellulose Corporation, 285 So. 2d 7, 1973 Fla. LEXIS 4173 (Fla. 1973).

Opinion

285 So.2d 7 (1973)

Eddie HAMMONDS, Petitioner,
v.
BUCKEYE CELLULOSE CORPORATION et al., Respondents.

No. 43303.

Supreme Court of Florida.

October 10, 1973.
Rehearing Denied November 19, 1973.

Ted R. Manry, III, and Charlie Luckie, Jr., of MacFarlane, Ferguson, Allison & Kelly, Tampa, for petitioner.

Byron Butler, Perry, John E. Mathews, Jr. of Mathews, Osborne, Ehrlich, McNatt, Gobelman & Cobb, Jacksonville, and Paul E. Raymond and William M. Barr of Raymond, Wilson, Karl, Conway & Barr, Daytona Beach, for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

This cause is before us to review a decision of the District Court of Appeal, First District, reported at 271 So.2d 179, Fla. App., which purportedly conflicts with Knox v. Spratt, 19 Fla. 817 (1883); Beekman v. Sonntag Investment Co., 67 Fla. 293, 64 So. 948 (1914); Triplett et al. v. Brevard Properties, Inc., 94 Fla. 869, 115 So. 534 (1927); Sperling et al. v. Davie, 41 So.2d 318 (Fla. 1949); Johnson v. Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Co., 169 So.2d 36 (Fla.App. 1964); South Florida Citrus Land Co. v. Waldin, 61 Fla. 766, 55 So. 862 (1911); and Connolly v. Sebeco, Inc., 89 So.2d 482 (Fla. 1956). We have jurisdiction pursuant to Article V, Section 3(b)(3), Florida Constitution F.S.A. (as amended 1973).

Petitioner filed a complaint and amendments thereto against respondent, The Buckeye Cellulose Corporation, Canal Timber Corporation, Gibson Paperwood Company, Inc., T.B. Upchurch, T.B. Upchurch, Inc., and Upchurch Milling Co. for specific performance of a contract for the conveyance of certain described property to petitioner. Attached to petitioner's complaint and amendments were copies of the various contracts, options, agreements, and deed mentioned in the complaint or its amendments pursuant to Rule 1.130, F.R.C.P. 30 F.S.A. Petitioner's complaint alleged, as follows:

"4. On July 21, 1971, defendant Upchurch as Agent for the Upchurch Corporations *8 entered into a written option contract with one R. Carr Gibson for the purchase by the said Upchurch from Gibson of a majority of the capital stock of the defendant Canal Timber Corporation (Canal) and of the defendant Gibson Paperwood Company, Inc. (Paperwood), said option contract being hereinafter called the Option Contract.
"5. On September 1, 1971, while the Option Contract was in full force and effect the defendant, T.B. Upchurch individually and as agent for the Upchurch Corporations and the defendants T.B. Upchurch, Inc. and Upchurch Milling Company, Inc. entered into in Orlando, Orange County, Florida, a written contract with the plaintiff under which the said defendants agreed to exercise the option granted to them by the Option Contract and further agreed that as the owners of the majority of the capital stock of the said Canal and Paperwood corporations they would cause the said Canal and Paperwood corporations to convey the Gibson Lands to the plaintiff for the sum of $200.00 per acre, which, subject to certain exclusions and adjustments in the actual acreage, would amount to $12,800,000.00, more or less, to be paid in cash at the Closing, said contract being hereinafter called the Sales Contract.
"6. The plaintiff paid the defendants Upchurch and the Upchurch Corporations the sum of $50,000.00 on the signing of the Sales Contract on September 1, 1971, as provided for therein, and which is to be applied on the purchase price at the Closing, and plaintiff has been at all times thereafter and now is able, ready, and willing to carry out and perform the Sales Contract on his part, and to pay the agreed purchase price in cash at the Closing.
"7. The Sales Contract provided that the plaintiff should have for ninety (90) days, or to and including November 30, 1971, the exclusive right to purchase the Gibson Lands for the price aforesaid, but it further provided that the plaintiff was entitled to receive from Upchurch and the Upchurch Corporations within forty (40) days evidence of marketable title in the form of up-to-date abstracts and that if such evidence was not furnished within forty (40) days the said ninety day period should not begin to run until such evidence had been furnished. The defendant Upchurch and the Upchurch Corporations have failed and refused to furnish such abstracts and the ninety (90) day period for the Closing and the payment of the balance of the purchase price has not begun to run.
"8. The Sales Contract provided that if the plaintiff failed to pay the purchase price in cash by the time of closing that the plaintiff should thereupon forfeit the $50,000.00 paid upon the execution of the Sales Contract, and that provision has not been modified or changed.
"9. Plaintiff's preferred method of financing the purchase for cash was to be through a loan from an insurance company secured by a timber contract for a period of years from corporations such as the Buckeye Cellulose Corporation or the Georgia-Pacific Corporation and plaintiff had secured a letter of intent from the latter corporation, dated September 1, 1971, that it expected to pay $1,105,000.00 per year for ten years aggregating $11,050,000 for the exclusive right to cut and remove timber from the Gibson Lands.
"10. In order to protect the plaintiff in the event the Georgia-Pacific Corporation should not be willing to enter into contract in the precise amount of the estimated figure set out in its letter of intent, or should offer an amount which the plaintiff might deem insufficient to enable him to finance the purchase, the defendants Upchurch and the Upchurch Corporations entered into a later, undated, agreement giving the plaintiff in such event the right to give up the Sales *9 Contract and receive the return of the $50,000.00 he had paid.
"11. The Georgia-Pacific Corporation, after cruising the Gibson Lands, was unwilling to enter into contract for the full amount of $11,050,000.00 but the plaintiff did not take advantage of that fact. The plaintiff has been advised by the Georgia-Pacific Corporation that it will enter into a timber contract with him for an amount deemed by the plaintiff to be adequate, and plaintiff is and will be prepared to pay in cash at the Closing the full purchase price called for by the Sales Contract, but the defendant Upchurch and the defendant Upchurch Corporations have wrongfully breached the Sales Contract and refused to perform claiming that even though they are in default on their part the failure of the Georgia-Pacific Corporation to contract for the exact amount named in the Supplement was for the benefit of said defendants and permitted them to escape from the Sales Contract.
"12. By letter dated at Daytona Beach, Florida, November 24, 1971, defendant Upchurch individually and as agent for the Upchurch Corporations advised plaintiff of the above and foregoing contentions of those defendants and tendered to plaintiff the return of the sum of $50,000.00 in the form of a Cashier's check of the First National Bank of Ormond Beach, Florida, dated November 24, 1971, in that amount, payable to T.B. Upchurch, Agent, and endorsed to plaintiff, which tender was refused and the aforesaid check was returned to the defendant Upchurch by registered letter dated November 30, 1971.
"13.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

MTGLQ INVESTORS, LP v. SILVIA LEONES a/k/a SILVIA LENEONES
District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2021
State of Louisiana v. Asahel Harvin
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2018
Ervans v. The City of Venice, Florida
169 So. 3d 267 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2015)
Malone v. City of Satellite Beach
717 So. 2d 1067 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1998)
LaROCHE INC. v. BARNETT BANK OF SO. FLA.
661 So. 2d 855 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1995)
Riteway Real Estate, Inc. v. Bentley Ocean View, Inc.
659 So. 2d 1194 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1995)
STATE DEPT. OF INS. v. Blackburn
633 So. 2d 521 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1994)
Southern Neurosurgical Associates v. Fine
591 So. 2d 252 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1991)
Spacecraft Boatworks, Inc. v. Anacapri Boat Manufacturing, Inc.
42 Fla. Supp. 2d 182 (Florida Circuit Courts, 1990)
City of Maitland v. Orange County
546 So. 2d 1084 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1989)
Thompson v. Martin
530 So. 2d 495 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1988)
Elliot v. Barrow
526 So. 2d 989 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1988)
Bennett v. National Gypsum Co.
491 So. 2d 1161 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1986)
Dykema v. Godfrey
467 So. 2d 824 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1985)
Penthouse North Ass'n v. Lombardi
461 So. 2d 1350 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1984)
Adams v. Kent Insurance Co.
431 So. 2d 335 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1983)
Bolton v. Smythe
432 So. 2d 129 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1983)
Greenwald v. Triple D Properties, Inc.
424 So. 2d 185 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1983)
Goodman v. Habif
424 So. 2d 171 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
285 So. 2d 7, 1973 Fla. LEXIS 4173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hammonds-v-buckeye-cellulose-corporation-fla-1973.