Katz v. Hathaway

119 P. 804, 66 Wash. 355, 1911 Wash. LEXIS 1074
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 26, 1911
DocketNo. 9589
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 119 P. 804 (Katz v. Hathaway) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Katz v. Hathaway, 119 P. 804, 66 Wash. 355, 1911 Wash. LEXIS 1074 (Wash. 1911).

Opinion

Mount, J.

This action was brought by the plaintiff to enforce specific performance of a contract. Upon the trial of the case to the court without a jury, a decree was entered substantially as prayed for in the complaint. The defendants Hathaway and wife have appealed.

The contract sued upon is as follows:

“Articles of agreement, made and entered into by and between O. B. Hathaway and Dolía Hathaway, husband and [356]*356wife, of Clarke county, state of Washington, the parties of the first part, and C. D. Charles, trustee, of the county of Multnomah, state of Oregon, the party of the second part; Witnesseth: That said parties of the first part hereby covenant and agree, that if the party of the second part shall first make the payments and perform the covenants hereinafter mentioned on his part, to be made and performed, the said parties of the first part will convey and assure to the party of the second part, in fee simple, clear of all incumbrances whatever, by a general warranty deed, the following described real property situated, lying and being in the county of Clarke and state of Washington, to wit: [Then follows a description of 469 acres of land] and the said party of the second part hereby covenants and agrees to pay to said parties of the first part the sum of thirty-five thousand ($35,000) dollars in the manner following: $20 no-1-1 OOths (Twenty Dollars) cash in hand paid, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged by said parties of the first part; $5,000 no-l-100ths (Five Thousand Dollars) on or before the 1st day of September, 1906, and the balance of $29,980 no'-l-100ths (Twenty-nine Thousand Nine Hundred Eighty Dollars) on or before the 1st day of January, 1908. It is mutually agreed that all the covenants and agreements herein contained shall extend to and be obligatory upon the heirs, executors, administrators and assigns of the respective parties. It is mutually agreed also that if the tract first herein-before described contains less than 400 acres, a corresponding deduction of $75.00 per acre shall be made from the full purchase price aforesaid. It witness whereof the parties to these presents have hereunto set their hands and seals this 18th day of June, 1906.”

This agreement was duly signed by all the parties to it, and was acknowledged and delivered, and was recorded in the record of deeds for Clarke county, Washington, where the land is situated. It is conceded that the first two payments were made as they became due. It is also admitted that there was a mortgage of $2,000 upon the premises at the time the contract was made, which mortgage has not yet been satisfied. It is also admitted that the plaintiff is. the successor in interest of C. D. Charles, trustee, with whom [357]*357the contract was made, and that the final payment was not made when it became due; but in October, 1908, plaintiff requested a deed which was refused, and in February, 1909, plaintiff made a formal tender of the balance due with interest, and demanded the deed in compliance with the terms of the contract, which defendants refused. Defendants made no offer to return the purchase money paid, and did nothing to put the plaintiff in default. Mr. Hathaway testified that in April, 1908, some four months after the date fixed in the contract for final payment of the balance due, he was willing to comply with the contract, but made no offer to do so. In fact, after' the final payment became due, neither party seems to have made any move until about the time the tender was made as above stated. This action was begun in March, 1909. The defendants in their answer to the complaint alleged that time was of the essence of the contract, and that the payments made were to be forfeited in case final payment was not made as agreed; but by mutual mistake these provisions were omitted, and the prayer was for a revision of the contract in this respect. This defense, however, was abandoned at the trial, and the defense relied upon here now is that, after the first two payments were made, the contract was abandoned by all the parties to it and their assigns.

It appears from the evidence in the case that, before the second payment of $5,000 became due, the contract was assigned by C. D. Charles, trustee, to the Oregon, Washington & Idaho Finance Company, a corporation. This corporation borrowed $8,000 of certain citizens residing at Vancouver, Washington, near where the land was located. This contract and others of the samé nature were deposited with a trustee as security for the repayment of the loan. Five thousand dollars of the money so borrowed was paid upon this contract, and the remainder of the $8,000 was used to pay debts of the corporation. The $8,000 note was not paid when it matured, and some of the persons who had participated in [358]*358the loan thought the corporation would not be able to repay the loan. But no demand was made for their money until July, 1908. Soon after demand was made, the note was paid with interest. Before this time, however, Mr. Hathaway consulted some of those persons to find out what he should do to remove the cloud from his title, and was advised to bring a suit for that purpose. But this was not done, and no tender or deed or offer to perform was made by the defendants so as to put the plaintiff in default. While it is true that the corporation named did not have sufficient money to meet these obligations, it is clearly established that it had credit and that its stockholders stood ready at anytime to advance money to meet all its obligations, and that as soon as a demand was made for the amount due on the $8,000 note for which this contract was held as security, the money was forthcoming.

• It is said that the property has largely increased in value sincé the date of the contract. Some of the witnesses placed the value at the time of the trial at $40,000, and others as high as $200,000. It is apparent that the property has' at all times been worth as much as or more than the price fixed in the contract. We are satisfied that there has been no abandonment of the contract by the plaintiff or the corporation from which he obtained it. It is true that the final payment was not made when it became due, and no offer to pay was made for several months thereafter, but no demand for payment or offer to convey the title was made by defendants so as to put the plaintiff in default. In the case of Reese v. Westfield, 56 Wash. 415, 105 Pac. 837, 28 L. R. A. (N. S.) 956, we said:

“If the case of Stein v. Waddell and the succeeding cases to which we have referred have been hitherto misunderstood, we desire now, for the sake of certainty, to lay down the rule that, where land is sold under a time contract calling for payment by installments, and every installment has been paid except the last one, the vendor may, if he act with reasonable promptness, declare a forfeiture, unless by the [359]*359terms of the contract he has agreed to perform some act necessary to the complete performance of his agreement, as, for instance, the giving of an abstract or the tender of a deed, in which event his power to forfeit depends upon his offer and ability to perform; for, as this court has said, his duty to tender performance depends upon, and is concurrent with, the duty of the vendee to meet the final payment.”

In Tacoma Water Supply Co. v. Dumermuth, 51 Wash. 609, 99 Pac. 741, we said:

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Bluebook (online)
119 P. 804, 66 Wash. 355, 1911 Wash. LEXIS 1074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/katz-v-hathaway-wash-1911.