McKellar Real Estate & Investment Co. v. Paxton

269 P. 1035, 72 Utah 330, 1928 Utah LEXIS 29
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 25, 1928
DocketNo. 4603.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 269 P. 1035 (McKellar Real Estate & Investment Co. v. Paxton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McKellar Real Estate & Investment Co. v. Paxton, 269 P. 1035, 72 Utah 330, 1928 Utah LEXIS 29 (Utah 1928).

Opinions

*331 GIDEON, J.

This is an appeal by defendants Paxton and wife. The case was here on a former appeal. McKellar R. E. & Inv. Co. v. Paxton, 62 Utah 97, 218 P. 128. Prior to the first trial W. R. Walker, one of the vendors of the land herein involved, and one of the plaintiffs, acquired all of the interests of the other plaintiffs in the subject-matter of the litigation. He therefore was and still is the sole plaintiff.

As stated and held in the former opinion, the action was instituted to recover an amount claimed to be due plaintiff from defendants upon a written contract for the sale of real estate. On the first trial the lower court dismissed the complaint, and rendered judgment in favor of the defendants, and against the plaintiff, for the amount of money defendants had paid on the contract for the sale of the property.

The written contract of sale was dated April 23, 1926. It is conceded, and on the former appeal was so held by this court, that contemporaneous with the written contract an additional parol contract was entered into by and between the parties, whereby plaintiff undertook and agreed to complete and make certain alterations on the building then standing on the premises as a part of the consideration for the purchase price. At the first trial the lower court was of the opinion that, plaintiff having failed to complete the building as agreed, defendants were entitled to recover the amount by them paid on the contract, and to be relieved from further obligation under it. The judgment dismissing the complaint and awarding judgment to the defendants was by this court reversed. This court held that, by acceptance and retention of possession of the property defendants had lost their right to rescind the contract.

At the first trial the lower court found, and on the appeal from the judgment this court likewise held, that the building on the premises had not been completed as agreed, and that the alterations made did not meet the requirements of the oral agreement. On that appeal this court further held that the defendants, by accepting and occupying the property, *332 should be held to have elected to rely upon their right to offset against the purchase price any damages sustained by reason of the failure of the plaintiff to complete the building according to the terms of the parol agreement. The cause was remanded to the district court, to determine the rights of the parties in accordance with the views expressed by this court in its opinion.

The remittitur was filed in the district court. The parties were permitted to amend their pleadings. A hearing was had upon the issues raised by the amended pleadings. That court found the terms of the oral agreement with respect to the alterations and additions that should be made in and to the building subsequent to the date of the oral agreement. The court’s finding in that respect is set out in full later in this opinion. The court also found the amount of the damages sustained by defendants by reason of the failure of plaintiff to complete the building as provided in the oral agreement, and judgment was entered in favor of plaintiff, after, deducting from the amount of the purchase price the several amounts of damages found by the court as having been sustained by defendants by reason of the failure of the plaintiff to complete the building as agreed. The defendants Paxton and wife now appeal from that judgment.

No complaint is made respecting the amounts allowed as offset for damages, in so far as the particular items enumerated in the trial court’s findings are concerned. The principal assignment of error and the chief complaint is as to the ruling of the trial court in striking from the record certain testimony, and refusing to allow defendants any amount for a defective wall in the building located upon the premises purchased by defendants.

It is undisputed that on April 23, 1920, the date of the contract, there had been erected on the premises what is referred to as an old building, and to the west of that a new building. The walls of both buildings were com-píete, and the alterations and changes, as shown by the evidence and as found by the trial court, had to do with the *333 building of certain partitions, laying of floors in the new building, finishing the upstairs, putting in new doors and windows, and also installing plumbing and digging or constructing a cesspool. It also appears that plaintiff purchased the property from others prior to the contract of sale entered into with defendants, and it likewise appears that the walls of both the old and the new buildings were constructed before plaintiff became the owner of or interested in the property.

At the hearing in the district court, which resulted in the judgment from which this appeal is prosecuted, the defendants offered testimony to show that the west wall of the new building had, by reason of a defective foundation or some other defect, slipped away from the main part of the building, and had cracked in several places, and that as a result of the slipping or sliding away there were cracks in places along the wall where the joists were attached to this building. Testimony was offered to show that the wall could not be made safe without practically rebuilding it, or at least tearing it down to the point where the joists supporting the upper story are inserted in the wall. This testimony was admitted, and was afterwards, on motion of counsel for plaintiff, stricken out — the trial court taking the view that there was no testimony showing that the plaintiff had. any notice or knowledge of the defect of the west wall, if there were a defect, that plaintiff made no representations respecting the construction of the wall or its then present condition, and that he did not conceal any defect in the wall known to him, if there were a defect; also that the defendants Paxton and wife examined the building before purchasing the property, and had every and the same opportunity to discover any defect, if there were a defect, to the same extent as did the plaintiff. The trial court was of opinion, and so stated in making its ruling upon the motion to strike this testimony, that in the state of the record as then made there was shown neither an express nor an implied guaranty on the part of plaintiff that the west wall would stand and not *334 slip from its foundation. In our judgment, the trial court did not err in granting the motion to strike. Harsha v. Reid, 45 N. Y. 415; Bowe v. Hunking, 135 Mass. 380, 46 Am Rep. 471.

As indicated above, and as stated in the former opinion of this court, neither of the parties to this proceeding denies the existence of the parol agreement entered into contemporaneously with the written contract. The oral agreement had to do with the repairs or alterations that were to be made in the building before the same was to be delivered to the defendants or accepted by them. N!o one is now disputing the existence of that contract. The written agreement made no reference to any changes or alterations to be made in the building on tne premises. The seventh finding made by the court on the second trial is as follows:

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Related

Paxton v. Paxton, Walker Et Ux. v. Same
15 P.2d 1051 (Utah Supreme Court, 1932)

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269 P. 1035, 72 Utah 330, 1928 Utah LEXIS 29, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckellar-real-estate-investment-co-v-paxton-utah-1928.