Hampton Stave Co. v. Gardner

154 F. 805, 83 C.C.A. 521, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4589
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 18, 1907
DocketNo. 2,487
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 154 F. 805 (Hampton Stave Co. v. Gardner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hampton Stave Co. v. Gardner, 154 F. 805, 83 C.C.A. 521, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4589 (8th Cir. 1907).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

The first complaint in this case is that the court below refused to sustain a demurrer to the petition, and, at the dose of the evidence, to dismiss the action on the grounds that the amount involved was less than $2,000, and that there was no averment or proof that the plaintiff below would have taken the lands if a complete abstract of title to them had been furnished. The plaintiff, Russell E. Gardner, alleged in his complaint, and the evidence proved these facts: On October 30, 1905, the Plampton Stave Company, a corporation, made a written contract with Gardner upon which he paid it $1,000, whereby the Hampton Company agreed to sell and convey, and Gardner undertook to buy, within 60 days, 5,000 acres of land for the sum of $20,000, the Hampton Company agreed to furnish him within a reasonable time proper abstracts of title to the lands, and they mutually agreed that if the titles proved defective the $1,000 should be refunded; if they proved good, and Gardner purchased the lands, the $1,000 should be credited upon the price; and if the titles proved good, and Gardner failed to take and pay for the lands, the $1,000 should be [806]*806forfeited to the Hampton Company. The Hampton Company furnished an incomplete abstract of title to the lands, and though often requested failed to furnish any other within the 60 days. The land was worth $30,000, and! Gardner alleged that he had sustained, and asked to- recover, damages to the amount of $11,000.

Upon all questions of jurisdiction, the sum demanded, not the sum recovered, recoverable, or admitted, is the amount in dispute, unless the record proves to a legal certainty either that the sum demanded cannot be, as a matter of law, the amount in dispute (Vance v. Vandercook Co., 170 U. S. 468, 472, 18 Sup. Ct. 674, 48 L. Ed. 1100; Bank of Arapahoe v. Bradley & Co., 19 C. C. A. 206, 72 Fed. 867), or that it is as a matter of fact a colorable and fictitious sum inserted in bad faith to invoke jurisdiction (Hilton v. Dickinson, 108 U. S. 165, 174, 2 Sup. Ct. 424, 27 L. Ed. 688; Wilson v. Daniel, 3 Dall. (Pa.) 401, 404, 1 L. Ed. 655; Smith v. Greenhow, 109 U. S. 669, 671, 3 Sup. Ct. 421, 27 L. Ed. 1080; Schunk v. Moline, Milburn & Stoddart Co., 147 U. S. 500, 504, 13 Sup. Ct. 416, 37 L. Ed. 255; Peeler v. Lathrop, 1 C. C. A. 93, 98, 48 Fed. 780, 786. The vendee claimed damages for the breach bjr the vendor of a contract of sale of real estate. The legal measure of such damages is the difference between the contract price and the value of the property, and this was $10,000. The record* fails to convince that this claim was made in bad faith to impose upon the court below and to fraudulently invoke its jurisdiction, and the amount in dispute was sufficient to sustain the action.

The next objection is that there was no averment or proof that the vendee would have taken and paid for the land pursuant to the contract if a correct abstract had been furnished, and that the court refused to admit evidence offered- by the vendor to the effect that he would not have done so. But that evidence was immaterial. What the parties would have done if the vendor had not violated its agreement was a speculative and irrelevant issue. It had committed the first breach of the contract, and had thereby given to the vendee the right to recover the legal damages which resulted from its wrong, and the only issues in the case were the breach and the amount of damages. It is said that the damages for the breach should be limited to the cost of a correct abstract, and that in any event evidence that the vendee would not have taken the property was material in determining the amount of damages. But the vendee’s right to purchase was limited by the contract to 60 days. He had paid $1,000 for this option, and it was a valuable one. The vendor had covenanted to deliver to him a correct abstract within a reasonable time, and the vendee had the right to rely upon the performance of this covenant by the vendor and to stake his option upon it. He was not required to presume that the vendor would violate his agreement and to act and to procure an abstract for himself upon that assumption. Nor was the cost of such an abstract the probable effect of the vendor’s failure to furnish one. The measure of damages for its breach of this covenant in the contract was the natural and probable loss which the vendee would sustain on account of that breach, and that was the value of the option, the difference between the value and the contract price of the land, and the vendor could not lawfully take advantage of its own wrong by proof that the vendee would [807]*807not have realized this value if it had performed its covenant. Upon a breach by a vendor of a covenant to furnish an abstract of title in a contract which grants a time option to purchase land, the measure of damages is the difference between the contract price and the value of the land, and the issue whether or not the vendee would'have purchased the land if the vendor had furnished the abstract is speculative and immaterial.

Error is assigned because the court rejected evidence that the vendor had title to the lands during the 60 days. But there was no question of title in the case and no reason for this assignment.

At the trial the vendor proved that after the expiration of the option it offered to furnish a correct abstract of title and to convey the land to the vendee at the contract price. But the latter did not accept the offer. In view of this evidence, the court below limited the amount of the recovery to the $1,000 which the vendee had paid for the option and interest thereon, and instructed the jury to return a verdict against tire Hampton Company for that amount. This instruction is assailed because the court below refused to’ submit to the jury the questions: (1) .Did the vendee first breach the contract by refusing to take the lands for reasons other than the lack of the abstract before the vendor failed to furnish a correct one? (2) Did the vendee prevent the vendor from furnishing the abstract when requested? And (3) did the vendee by agreement or conduct waive the covenant to furnish the abstract after the contract was made ?

The evidence on which the vendor relied for the submission of the first question was the testimony of G. N. Hampton, the president of the vendor, to the effect that on December 14, 1905, Anderson, the agent of the vendee, asked him for an extension of the option which he refused, and Anderson then said that, unless the option was extended so that the vendee would have an opportunity to examine the lands, he would not take them, and the deal was off. But this conversation did not rise to the dignity of a notice by the vendee that he had renounced his option, and it was followed, far within the 60 days, by-repeated written demands for a complete abstract and a written notice that, if such an abstract was furnished, the vendee would go ahead, examine the titles, and buy the lands.

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Bluebook (online)
154 F. 805, 83 C.C.A. 521, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4589, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hampton-stave-co-v-gardner-ca8-1907.