Platner v. Ellingwood

243 N.W. 896, 123 Neb. 719, 1932 Neb. LEXIS 269
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 29, 1932
DocketNo. 28281
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 243 N.W. 896 (Platner v. Ellingwood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Platner v. Ellingwood, 243 N.W. 896, 123 Neb. 719, 1932 Neb. LEXIS 269 (Neb. 1932).

Opinion

Tewell, District Judge.

• This action was begun to foreclose a contract for the sale of real estate. The plaintiff, George W. Platner, appellant, entered into a contract in writing under date of June 3, 1929, with the defendant Dewitt Ellingwood, hereinafter designated as Ellingwood, one of the appellees herein, whereby the plaintiff agreed to sell and convey to Ellingwood lots 7, 8, and 9, in block 7, Cedarnole, an addition in Douglas county, Nebraska. By the contract Ellingwood agreed to pay Platner the sum of $13,230.72, payable $1,000 in cash on the date of the contract, $4,-230.72 by agreeing to pay the unpaid balance of a debt secured by a first mortgage to the defendant Omaha Loan & Building Association, hereinafter called the association, and the balance of $8,000 by delivering to Platner within' a period of three years, at such times and in such quantities as Platner should later designate, sand, sand-gravel or road-gravel, at the market price at various times of delivery as quoted by Lyman-Richey Sand & Gravel Company, until such sum of $8,000 had been paid. The debt to the association was payable in monthly payments of $45 a month, and payments by Ellingwood were to begin on June 15, 1929. The contract provided that Ellingwood should pay taxes for the year 1929 and subsequent years, take immediate possession, and keep the property insured, and that Platner should give deed and abstract of title when the consideration was fully paid. "Provision is made in the contract to the effect that, if the vendee fails or refuses to make deliveries of the sand and gravel, he may either pay the unpaid portion of the said sum of $8,000 in cash or by monthly payments of $80 a month, in which latter event the unpaid balance should draw interest at 6 per cent, per annum, due at stated times. A clause is contained in the contract to the effect that if the vendee fail to perform he shall forfeit his rights in the property, and that if he fail to make the payments the whole amount of the unpaid principal shall become due. Platner, vendor in the contract, [721]*721brought this action and made Ellingwood, Ellingwood’s wife, Eleanor, and the association defendants. Ellingwood and his wife filed a joint answer to the plaintiff’s petition, in which they admit the execution of the contract, deny default on the part of Ellingwood, and allege that on September 22, 1930, the plaintiff refused to accept any further deliveries of sand or gravel, and that Ellingwood thereupon rescinded said contract and orally tendered the property back to the plaintiff. Said answer further pleads that Ellingwood was induced to enter into said contract through false and fraudulent representations of the plaintiff, the representations alleged to have been made being that the residence on said lots “was well built, was a good house and would make Ellingwood a good home.” It is further alleged in the answer that, prior to the execution of the contract, a fire occurred in the basement of the residence upon the property involved, and so weakened the subfloor and floor joists immediately above the basement as to cause the house to settle, the floors to become unlevel, and several doors uncloseable, and that all evidence of fire had been hidden by lining the basement with plaster-board, and that Ellingwood did not discover the fact that such fire had occurred until just before September 22, 1930. Ellingwood prays for judgment against the plaintiff for $1,000 paid in cash upon the contract, $1,079.42 for sand and gravel delivered under the contract, $308.74 paid to the association and $143.81 paid for permanent improvements upon the items of upkeep of the property, or a total of $2,531.97, and tenders return of the property on condition that such sum is paid to him. Neither by answer, evidence nor by offer at the trial does Ellingwood offer to account for the value of his use and occupancy of the property. The allegations relative to defects in the house and concealment of evidence of the fire are pleaded in such manner as to cause them to be a statement of why the representations above mentioned were false and of why Ellingwood did not sooner discover the fact that such fire had occurred, and are not made a part of an action for fraudulent concealment.

[722]*722The trial court found that rescission of the contract had been had, and that Ellingwood had paid under the contract $1,000 in cash to plaintiff, $917.90 by delivery of sand and gravel and $308.74 in cash to the association, or a total of $2,226.64, and that plaintiff should be allowed $70 a month for twenty-nine and one-half month’s use of the property, or a total of $2,065, leaving a balance in favor of Ellingwood of $161.64. Ellingwood was denied recovery of the item of $143.81 above referred to and given until December 1, 1931, to vacate the property. Judgment was rendered in favor of Ellingwood for the sum of $161.64 and the association was decreed to have a first lien in the sum of $3,452.17. Platner appeals.

The evidence discloses that the defendants Ellingwood made their priVate home in the premises from immediately after the date of the contract to the date of the trial, and that sand and gravel were delivered at various times under the contract from soon after the date of the contract up to and including September 19, 1930, the total price of all deliveries being $1,915.85. Schellberg Sand & Gravel Company obtained a judgment against the plaintiff for the purchase price of a portion of the sand and gravel that had been delivered to plaintiff by Ellingwood and credited upon the contract, and plaintiff paid in satisfaction thereof $997.93, leaving a balance of $917.92 as the amount paid by delivery of sand or gravel. No taxes on the property were ever paid by Ellingwood. Platner paid taxes assessed in 1929. A fire occurred in the basement of the house in August, 1926, and plaintiff had had the same repaired by a contractor at a cost of about $2,500. The plaintiff, and also the tenant, Mr. Henderson, who was living in the house on the date of the contract, and Mr. Keener, an employee of the plaintiff at the time of the sale, each testify that Ellingwood was told of the fire prior to the execution of the contract. Ellingwood denies knowledge of the fire prior to August 4, 1930, when he claims to have discovered it through an incident that occasioned removal of a part of the plaster-board in the [723]*723basement. After August 4, 1930, Ellingwood continued delivery of sand and gravel under the contract to as late as September 19, 1930. On September 22, 1930, the plaintiff wrote Ellingwood a letter in which he refused to accept any more sand and gravel, giving as a reason that the quality was unmarketable. The quality of the sand and gravel had been a subject of complaint by the plaintiff to Ellingwood for some time prior to the date of this letter. A letter by the plaintiff to defendant on August 26, 1930, and one of September 5, 1930, complain of failure of defendant Ellingwood to make deliveries. Ellingwood testifies that a day or two after the receipt of the letter of September 22, 1930, he called the plaintiff by telephone and said to him: “You don’t think my material is any good, and I don’t think your house is any good, and as long as you want to rescind on my contract I will rescind, and all you have to do is to give me what I paid in this, and pay me for my gravel and I will move out.” The letter of September 22, 1930, makes no mention of rescission, but states: “You will have to find some other way to take up your obligation with us.” The statement above quoted is the only act that Ellingwood is shown to have done toward rescinding the contract prior to the filing of his cross-petition.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
243 N.W. 896, 123 Neb. 719, 1932 Neb. LEXIS 269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/platner-v-ellingwood-neb-1932.