McCroskey v. Ladd

31 P. 558, 96 Cal. 455, 1892 Cal. LEXIS 977
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 22, 1892
DocketNo. 13297
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 31 P. 558 (McCroskey v. Ladd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCroskey v. Ladd, 31 P. 558, 96 Cal. 455, 1892 Cal. LEXIS 977 (Cal. 1892).

Opinion

Harrison, J.—

The plaintiff made an agreement in writing with the defendants and two others on the 25th of August, 1887, to sell and convey to them certain real estate in Hollister for the sum of $6,500, of which $650 was to be paid at that date, and the balance within sixty [457]*457days thereafter. The agreement also contained the following clause: “And said McOroskey, upon receiving said payments, agrees to make a deed of said property to said persons, and convey title to said premises to them, and if said persons fail to make said payments as herein named, they shall forfeit all right to said property and all right to all payments made herein. If said title is not sufficient and good, then said money paid shall be refunded.” Instead of paying the $650 in money upon that day, the defendants, for themselves and their associates, executed to the plaintiff their promissory note for $650, payable one day after date. After the execution of the agreement, the parties thereto had some negotiations regarding the examination of the title to the property, which resulted in. the vendees being dissatisfied therewith, and a demand by the defendants that the plaintiff surrender to them their note. This the plaintiff refused, but tendered a.deed of the property to McClay (one of the vendees), and demanded payment of him of the full amount of the purchase-money, viz., ^$650, but McOlay refused either to accept the deed or pay the money. In November, 1888, the plaintiff brought this action against the defendants to recover from them the amount of the promissory note. The complaint is in the ordinary form of a complaint upon a promissory note. The defendants, in their answer, set up the transaction of which the note was a part, and pleaded a failure of consideration. The court rendered judgment in favor of the defendants, and the plaintiff has appealed therefrom, bringing the case here upon the judgment roll alone.

The action upon the note, being between the original parties thereto, is subject to an inquiry into its consideration, and is also subject to any equities existing between the parties which arise out of the execution of the note, or are connected therewith. The note was given for a portion of the purchase price of a tract of land to be thereafter conveyed by the plaintiff under his agreement with the defendants and their associates; was exe[458]*458cuted in pursuance of said agreement at the same time with the execution of the agreement; was a part of the same transaction, and is to be interpreted and regarded as a part of the agreement made between the parties at that date. The finding of the court, that it was executed “in pursuance of said agreement, in the place and stead of the payment of $650,” provided for in the written instrument, must be construed as a cotemporaneous agreement between the parties to substitute the note for the provision in the instrument that the sum of money should be paid at the date of its execution. The execution of a promissory note for the payment of a portion of the purchase-money did not render the relative obligations of the parties to the agreement of sale any different from what they would have been had this obligation been incorporated into the written agreement itself. The obligation of the purchaser under such an agreement is the same, whether'the purchase-money is made payable in installments by the terms of the agreement itself, or whether it is evidenced by a counter-obligation on his part, or by promissory notes executed by him as a part of the same transaction. All of the writings that are executed at that time become a part of the transaction, and are to be considered together as parts of one agreement. (Culver v. Burgher, 21 Barb. 324; Divine v. Divine, 58 Barb. 264; Glassell v. Coleman, 94 Cal. 267.)

The respective obligations of the parties to an agreement for the conveyance of land, when the purchase-money is made payable in installments, are to be construed as independent obligations, or as dependent and concurrent, according to the terms in which the agree- . ment is expressed. If an installment is made payable i prior to the date at which the conveyance is to be made, the obligation to pay the installment and to make the conveyance will be regarded as independent obligations, and the seller can maintain an action for the recovery of the installment without the execution or tender of a conveyance; whereas, if the payment of the installment" is [459]*459to be made upon the execution of the conveyance, no recovery thereof can be had, except upon the averment and proof of such execution, or of a tender thereof. If the agreement is silent upon this point, the obligations will be regarded as mutual and dependent, so that neither party can have a right of action against the other without a previous performance or offer to perform on his part; and if the time for the performance of the conditions on both sides has expired, it is incumbent on either party, before he can enforce a performance by the other, to do or offer to do all that by the agreement he is required to do. If a recovery of the installment is not sought until after the time for the payment of the last installment, the plaintiff must aver and prove the same facts as would be required in an action to recover the last installment. (Johnson v. Wygant, 11 Wend. 48.) If he defers the collection of the several installments until the time for the collection of them all has accrued, he has no right of action upon any of the prior installments separate from that upon them all. His cause of action is not upon the agreement to pay the installments, but for the consideration upon which he agreed to convey the land, and is an entire and single demand. He has no right of action upon a part thereof distinct from that upon the whole, and in any action brought by him for a part or for the whole of the purchase-money after all of the payments have become due, he must aver and prove that before he commenced the action he had complied with the agreement on his part, or had offered so to comply, by making or tendering a conveyance of the premises. The obligations to make these payments, which were originally independent, have, by his waiver of the right to enforce them, become dependent and concurrent with his own obligation to convey, and can be enforced only upon his showing that he is not in default. As in the case of any other obligation which is entire, but by its terms is to be performed at stated intervals prior to the time for its complete performance, whether [460]*460it be for the payment of money, or for the delivery of merchandise, if the holder of such obligation delays its enforcement until after the time for its complete performance, his right of action for the several installments will have become merged in the entire obligation, and can be enforced only in a single action upon that obligation. These are elementary principles in the construction of con-' tracts, and their ap[dication to cases involving facts like those under consideration is fully sustained by Beecher v. Conradt, 13 N. Y. 108; 64 Am. Dec. 535; Eddy v. Davis, 116 N. Y. 247; Hoag v. Parr, 13 Hun, 95; Smith v. McCluskey, 45 Barb. 610; Williams v. Healey, 3 Denio, 366; Thomson v. Smith, 63 N. Y. 304.

In Beecher v. Conradt, 13 N. Y. 108, 64 Am. Dec.

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Bluebook (online)
31 P. 558, 96 Cal. 455, 1892 Cal. LEXIS 977, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccroskey-v-ladd-cal-1892.