Plummer v. Kennington

128 N.W. 552, 149 Iowa 419
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedNovember 21, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 128 N.W. 552 (Plummer v. Kennington) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Plummer v. Kennington, 128 N.W. 552, 149 Iowa 419 (iowa 1910).

Opinion

Ladd, J.

The parties hereto entered into a written agreement October 4, 1907, by the terms of which plaintiff agreed to buy three hundred and ten acres of land, known as the “Valley View Farm of the Graham Banch,” and to pay therefor $19,375. Of this he undertook to pay defendant $10,000 and a stock of gents’ furnishing goods, shoes, etc., to be invoiced at once, and, if with fixtures of the agreed value of $373 this amounted to less than $9,375, plaintiff was to pay the difference in money less a discount of $234.35 allowed plaintiff because of the immediate delivery of the stock. Upon plaintiff’s election before February 1st following, defendant was to procure a loan for the $10,000, and up to $11,000 if needed, to cover the above difference, and possession of the farm was “to be given March 1, 1908, when second party is to have deed for the' land in usual warranty form with abstract of title, showing perfect title, free of any incumbrances.” The deed was to be delivered at the State Bank at Prairie City, and it was stipulated that, “if the first party (defendant) fails to furnish deed (warranty) together with abstract of title [421]*421showing clear and perfect title as above agreed, then he is to pay to the second party cash for the stock of goods as invoiced and cash for the fixtures.” The invoice was completed October 7, 1908, amounting to $450 less than estimated with discount out, and plaintiff delivered the goods, and later paid the difference. He notified defendant he would rely on him to procure the loan, and negotiations to that end followed; the defendant submitting abstracts of title to the bank at Prairie City, through which it was proposed to obtain the loan. This was on January 18, 1907, and it forwarded the papers to an insurance company. Upon observing that the abstract did not disclose the title in the appellant’s name, the company’s attorney notified the bank that it did not care to make the loan. The abstracts were then taken to other attorneys, one of whom examined them, and prepared a written opinion pointing 'out twenty-two alleged defects, and advising that “the abstractor rewrite the entire abstract, showing each step in the title pertaining thereto in regular order.” Thereupon the abstracts with the attorney’s exceptions were returned to defendant, who submitted them to the abstractor, who also was an attorney, and the latter, after making a number of corrections, returned them, saying that the abstracts showed good title in Joseph A. Graham, and that he did not “see how any one could object to the condition of the title as it now stands.” The banker insisted on submission to the Des Moines attorney again, who responded “that they (the abstracts) have been corrected in some particulars, but in many others, there has been no change; besides, the abstract remains in its confusing and disorderly condition. The abstract is far from satisfactory and the title as it appears therein in our judgment is not acceptable.” This was written March 3, 1908. As March 1st was Sunday, the defendant delivered deeds of the land executed by Joseph A. Graham, of whom he had purchased it, and wife to the plaintiff, to the bank on the following day, and [422]*422on April 3, 1908, this action for the recovery of the invoice value of the stock of goods, the agreed value of the fixtures, and the $450 paid in cash was begun. Defendant put in issue the allegations with respect to compliance with the conditions of the contract, alleged waiver of strict performance, prayed that it be reformed so as to exact payment of cash value of the stock and fixtures, instead of the invoice price and that fixed for fixtures, and in a cross petition demanded specific performance. On hearing specific performance of the contract was decreed, and, on appeal, the plaintiff first contends that the court erred in not entering judgment for the invoice price of the goods and agreed value of the fixtures, for that, as is said, defendant did not furnish abstracts showing perfect title to the land by March 1, 1908, as agreed.

i. Real property: contract of sale abstract of title. That the situation may be such as to exact a strict observance of the contract may be conceded. Primm v. Wise, 126 Iowa, 528; Webb v. Hancher, 127 Iowa, 269; Nelson v. Chingren, 132 Iowa, 383; Fagan v. Hook, 134 Iowa, 381. But the contract pefore us ¿id not stipulate that time should be of its essence, and the evidence is all but conclusive that defendant was proceeding in good faith to correct the alleged defects in the abstracts with plaintiff’s acquiescence long after the day fixed for performance. In first sending the exceptions to the abstracts to defendant, he wrote, after mentioning that his attorney had said that the abstracts would be rewritten, “Get it fixed as early in March as you can, but get it right.” According to defendant’s testimony and that of another witness, plaintiff on March 2d expressed confidence that the abstracts would be perfected, and about March 20th, without objection, allowed defendant to have the abstracts copied for his benefit; plaintiff’s attorney remarking that this would materially improve them. A few days previous to defendant’s assurance that, if anything was wrong about the abstracts, he would see that it would [423]*423be corrected, he had responded “that will be all right.” Before the abstracts had been copied, this suit was begun, April 3, 1908. Up to that time, neither party has insisted on performance at the date specified therefor in the contract, though plaintiff testified otherwise. The defendant had proceeded with reasonable diligence in efforts to perfect the record, and to comply with plaintiff’s requirements in completing the abstract. The plaintiff had acquisced therein," and neither can be permitted to take advantage of the other because of not performing on the day named. Hawes v. Swanzey, 123 Iowa, 52; Bales v. Williamson, 128 Iowa, 127.

2. Same: objections to abstract: estoppe: review on appeal. II. A difference of opinion seems to have prevailed among those who examined the abstracts, and this was manifested in their testimony as adduced on the trial. We shall not review this evidence in detail, for the circumstances that defendant’s witnesses though experienced as abstractors, had not - ' M been admitted to the bar, while those called by plaintiff had been admitted to the bar, but had not learned that a void deed might constitute color of title on which claim of adverse possession could be based, has occasioned some hesitation about resting a decision on the views of the law expressed on either side, and encouraged the hope that our conclusion on the points raised, even if uninfluenced by the opinions of those learned experts, may prove as acceptable. No attention need be given the abstracts save as criticised by the requisitions of the examiners for plaintiff; other defects, if any, thereby being waived. Lessenich v. Sellers, 119 Iowa, 314. Nor shall we consider features of the abstracts not specifically argued. It is no part of the court’s duty to review all the requisitions of the examiners on mere reference to them generally in argument. The rulings of the trial court are presumed to have been correct, and, to overcome this presumption, errors therein upon which reliance is had must be pointed out. [424]*424This much is said, not by way of intimation that any defect in the title, has escaped counsel’s attention, but in response to an invitation to review generally the requisition made by the examiners.

3. Same: specific performance.

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Bluebook (online)
128 N.W. 552, 149 Iowa 419, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/plummer-v-kennington-iowa-1910.