McKay v. Ryan

284 N.W. 57, 204 Minn. 480, 1939 Minn. LEXIS 591
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 10, 1939
DocketNo. 31,953.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 284 N.W. 57 (McKay v. Ryan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McKay v. Ryan, 284 N.W. 57, 204 Minn. 480, 1939 Minn. LEXIS 591 (Mich. 1939).

Opinion

Loring, Justice.

In a suit by the vendee to recover back his initial payment of $500 and for $100 damages for breach of a contract of sale covering real and personal property, based upon an alleged violation of the contract by the vendor, the defendants prevailed, and the plaintiff comes here on appeal from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

October 16, 1937, plaintiff entered into a contract (sometimes herein referred to as exhibit A) with the defendants whereby he agreed to purchase for the sum of $7,500:

“Lots 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 25, and 25 feet of North % of lot #15, and buildings and all equipment except rugs and children’s playhouse, desk, chair and table and rocking chair now in lodge. Studebaker truck, bedding, cabin equipment and all equipment and boats now on property or in buildings covered by this sale.”

*482 Five hundred dollars was paid at the execution of the contract, which provided that $8,500 should be paid—

“on delivery of contract for deed and Thirty-five hundred in monthly payments of Fifty dollars per month including interest at 6%. First payment $50.00 to be paid Nov. 1, 1937. Possession Oct: 22, 1937.”

The contract was very crudely drawn by plaintiff on a printed blank denominated “Earnest Money Contract op Sale.” Immediately following the provisions for payment which we have quoted was a printed provision which read as follows:

“payable on or before the dates as named above, or as soon thereafter as a Warranty Deed conveying a good title to said land is tendered, time being considered of the essence of this contract.”

The printed part of the contract further provided for the vendor to furnish a complete abstract of title, after which the vendee was to have 20 days for its examination. There was written into the contract a provision for the prorating of taxes and—

“If licenses are denied, this contract is void. This contract is an option to purchase property and buildings west of highway included in present contract for deed for $7,500 until Oct. 1, 1938.”

It was further provided in the printed part of the contract (figures and amounts inserted with a pen) that if title was not made good within 60 days the agreement should be void and the $500 refunded, but that if the title was good in the name of the vendor or was made good within 60 days, and the vendee refused to accept the same, the $500 should be forfeited to the vendor. Then followed a printed provision:

“But it is agreed and understood by all parties to this agreement that said forfeiture shall in no way affect the right of either party to enforce the specific performance of this contract. I hereby agree to purchase the said property for the price and upon the terms above mentioned, and also agree to the conditions of forfeiture and all other conditions therein expressed.”

*483 The contract was signed by both parties.

No question was ever raised as to the inadequacy of the description of the property, and the lots were identified by evidence dehors the written contract as being in Sheshebe Point, Third Division, in Aitkin county, Minnesota. For convenience the trial court divided the real estate referred to into five parcels.

Parcel No. 1 was the single lot 25 in block 21.

Parcel No. 2 was lot 18 in block 19, the northerly half of lot 15 in block 20, and lots 19, 23, and 24 in block 21.

Parcel No. 3 -was the southerly half of lot 15 and all of lots 18, 19, and 20 in block 20.

Parcel No. 4 was lots 16 and 17 in block 20.

Parcel No. 5 was lots 20, 21, and 22 in block 21.

Parcels Nos. 1, 2, and 5 were covered by the contract of sale and were referred to as “The Retreat.” That property was east of the road referred to in the contract. Parcels Nos. 3 and 4 were those covered by the option, were west of the road, and known as “The Pavilion.” The court found that on October 16, 1937, the title to parcel No. 1 was in the defendant George W. Ryan of record and in fact. It found further that the title to parcels Nos. 2 and 3 appeared of record in the name of Lake Shore Improvement Company, a corporation, subject to a mortgage to Stella C. Tingdale, not satisfied of record.

It further found that title to parcels Nos. 4 and 5 appeared of record in Eric A. Lindgren and Ida S. Lindgren, his wife, as joint tenants.

The court found that there was also in effect and of record a contract for deed from Bear Ridge Land Company, a corporation, as vendor, to defendants, George W. Ryan and Jay B. Ryan, and Lumena Sampson, as vendees, dated July 18, 1936, evidencing the sale of parcels Nos. 2 to 5, inclusive, by the vendors to the vendees and its agreement to convey same to them, subject to certain coal, oil, and mineral reservations of record, and to racial restrictions, upon payment by the vendees to the vendor of the sum of $7,000 in accordance with the terms of said contract which referred to certain unrecorded contracts running to the vendor corporation from *484 Eric A. Lindgren and wife and Charles L. Golden and his wife, and from said Lake Shore Improvement Company. Lnmena Sampson had assigned her interest as vendee to the Ryans, who the court found were not and had not been in default in any of the provisions of the contract.

The court found that the premises and property intended to be described and covered by the contract were parcels Nos. 1, 2, and 5, and certain personal property in part owned by the Ryans and unencumbered, and in part covered by the contract from the Bear Ridge Land Company to the Ryans. The court found that it was intended by the terms of the contract to grant an option to the plaintiff to purchase parcels Nos. 3 and 4 at the price stated until October 1, 1938. It found that:

* * it was known to and acquiesced in by plaintiff that defendants’ title to all of said premises, except parcel No. 1, was their equitable title as vendees in said Bear Ridge Land Company contract, and that defendants did not contemplate acquiring a deed of any of said premises from said Bear Ridge Land Company before the making of the $3,500 payment provided for in Exhibit ‘A’ [the contract of sale to plaintiff]; and it was intended by the parties that the title to be conveyed pursuant to Exhibit ‘A’ was to be subject to the reservations and restrictions mentioned in said Bear Ridge Land Company contract.”

Abstracts of title were furnished to plaintiff except as to parcel No. 1, the fee title to which was examined from the record. These abstracts and the records were examined by the plaintiff’s attorney, and there followed a period of correspondence between him and George W. Ryan and others, the attorney cooperating with the defendants and they inquiring just what was needed to make the title acceptable. The result of this correspondence and these negotiations was that on December 9, 1937, Eric A. Lindgren and his wife became the owners in fee simple of the record title to parcels Nos.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
284 N.W. 57, 204 Minn. 480, 1939 Minn. LEXIS 591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckay-v-ryan-minn-1939.