Nelson v. Laing

298 So. 2d 536, 1974 Fla. App. LEXIS 8941
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 15, 1974
DocketNo. U-81
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 298 So. 2d 536 (Nelson v. Laing) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nelson v. Laing, 298 So. 2d 536, 1974 Fla. App. LEXIS 8941 (Fla. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

McCORD, Judge.

This is an appeal from summary judgment for appellees (defendants below) in a suit brought by appellants (plaintiffs below) on a contract for sale of land.

Appellants and appellees entered into a contract for the purchase by appellants and sale by appellees of certain real property located in Volusia County. As a portion of the consideration of the purchase price, appellants agreed to convey title to a parcel of real property also located in Volusia County and owned by one of the appellants. The contract contained the following requirement with regard thereto :

“The Buyers will have the abstract brought up to date on said property showing a good and marketable title in Robert Nelson . . . ”

The contract provided for an examination period of 20 days and required written notice specifying any defects. Abstracts were furnished and within the time allowed appellees’ attorney wrote appellants’ attorney objecting to the title in that it was based on a Murphy deed which contained the usual highway reservation right-of-way of such deeds and he stated that provision would have to be made to eliminate this reservation. The reservation contained in the deed is as follows:

“RESERVING unto the State of Florida easement for State Road Right of Way [537]*537Two Hundred (200) feet wide, lying equally on each side of the center line of any State Road existing on the date of this deed through so much of any parcel herein described as is within One Hundred (100) feet of said center line.”

The deed is dated June 2, 1943.

In response to appellees’ attorney’s objection, the attorney for appellants replied that the property was not abutting on a state road on the date of the Murphy deed. These letters of counsel were not in the record but were alluded to in memo-randa filed with the trial court which are a part of the record here.

Appellants first contend there is a genuine issue as to a material fact which precludes the entry of a summary judgment, but this point was not argued at oral argument. The arguments were confined to appellants’ second contention only' — '“an easement, having been imposed by proper governmental authority, the parties were conclusively presumed to have contracted with reference to it and it cannot now be raised as a title defect rendering title unmarketable.”

In support of their motion for summary judgment, appellees filed two affidavits with the trial court. One was their own affidavit in which they cited certain terms of the contract and the reservation contained in the Murphy deed, along with a statement that the easement has not been released of record and none of the plaintiffs (appellants) have offered to obtain a release of the easement. The second affidavit is that of an attorney who recited that he had been a practicing attorney in Volusia County for approximately 12 years; had examined numerous abstracts of title to real property in Volusia County for 12 years and was presently the attorney for a Federal Savings and Loan Association ; that he is familiar with the subject reservation generally contained in Murphy deeds, and in his opinion the reservation renders title to real property unmarketable and would constitute an exception to good and fee simple title and would render said title to the real estate unmarketable. Appellants filed no counter affidavits but relied upon the law applicable to this situation.

In support of their position appellants cite the following authorities: Van Ness v. Royal Phosphate Co., 60 Fla. 284, 53 So. 381 (1910); Richardson-Kellett Co. v. Kline, 70 Fla. 23, 69 So. 203 (1915); Normandy Beach Properties Corporation v. Adams, 107 Fla. 583, 145 So. 870 (1933); and Charles H. Deeb, Inc. v. Kestner et al., Fla., 59 So.2d 514 (1952).

Before considering appellants’ authorities, we point out that there is a distinction between a contract to convey a good and marketable title and a contract requiring a good and marketable title as shown by an abstract. See Adams v. Whittle, 101 Fla. 705, 135 So. 152 (1931). There the Supreme Court said:

“It is our conclusion that if a ‘good and merchantable title’ in any given case must rest to a substantial degree upon parol, or evidence aliunde the record, the burden should be cast upon the vendor to produce and supply such evidence; otherwise an abstract required by a contract may serve only as a convenience and not as an ‘epitome of the title’ going to establish its regularity; in other words, the burden to supply other necessary evidence in completing a chain of title than that evidenced by the record should not be cast upon the purchaser who may, by the very nature of things, be a total stranger to the history of such title.”
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“The obligation, where the contract does not in effect require the conveyance of a good and marketable title of record, may be discharged by the conveyance of the title resting partly in parol, but free from doubt upon questions of both law and fact.”

As to the authorities cited by appellant, supra, Van Ness was a suit upon a deed [538]*538warranty. The property conveyed had a railroad right-of-way easement over it, and the easement was in open use. The Supreme Court held that a purchaser of such land must be presumed to have seen an open and visible easement and to have fixed his price with reference to the actual condition of the land at the time of purchase. It held that such an easement is not such an encumbrance as would constitute a breach of the convenant of warranty.

In Richardson-Kellett Co. the appellee had contracted to convey clear title in fee simple to certain lands in the Everglades. Appellee tendered a deed containing the same reservation contained in the original deed of the property from the state which reserves to the state the right to go upon the land at any and all times for the purpose of constructing a system of drainage canals thereon, if necessary. By the suit appellee sought to have the court require appellant to convey the land without such reservation. The trial court granted the relief sought and the Supreme Court reversed, holding as follows:

“Ordinarily the reservation of such a right over the land conveyed as the one reserved here to the hoard of trustees of the internal improvement fund of the state of Florida, would he an incum-brance upon the title, but under the circumstances surrounding the land in question, its situs, character, and the title thereto, we do not think that it is such an incumbrance of which the appellee has any right to complain. The land in question is a part of what is known as the ‘Everglades’ in the extreme southern end of the peninsula of Florida, a vast territory of several millions of acres that is, in major part at least, if not wholly unfit, because of its swamp or overflowed condition, for either habitation or cultivation, unless it be reclaimed by thorough drainage. They form part of that vast territory granted to the state of Florida by the Congress of the United States known as swamp and overflowed lands for the purpose of being reclaimed by drainage. They in turn were vested in trust for the same purpose, by state legislation in the said board of trustees of the internal improvement fund of the state.

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Related

Nelson v. Laing
312 So. 2d 756 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1975)

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298 So. 2d 536, 1974 Fla. App. LEXIS 8941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nelson-v-laing-fladistctapp-1974.