Sumner v. Thompson

70 Pa. D. & C. 242, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 73
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Chester County
DecidedNovember 28, 1949
Docketno. 1068
StatusPublished

This text of 70 Pa. D. & C. 242 (Sumner v. Thompson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Chester County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sumner v. Thompson, 70 Pa. D. & C. 242, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 73 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1949).

Opinion

Windle, P. J.,

Plaintiff has instituted this bill in equity praying specific performance of a contract for the sale of certain real estate— part of defendants’ farm adjoining the farm of plaintiff in Lower Oxford Township in this county — and an accounting of certain crops grown thereon. An answer was duly filed admitting the execution of the written agreement of sale pleaded but denying that the tract of land that plaintiff seeks to have conveyed under and by virtue of the terms thereof is the one therein referred to and intended to be conveyed and denying the right to any accounting of crops. Upon the issue so joined trial was had before a chancellor.

Findings of Fact

1. For some three or four months prior to May 25, 1948, Harold R. Sumner and Norman M. Thompson had negotiated for the sale of a tract of land owned by defendants in Lower Oxford Township, Chester County, which abutted the land in that township already owned by Harold R. Sumner.

2. On one occasion, approximately 20 days prior to May 25,1948, plaintiff and his son, Harold R. Sumner, Jr., together with defendant, Norman M. Thompson, went upon the land owned by defendants and there Norman M. Thompson pointed out a tree on the line between defendants’ farm and that of Sumner and indicated that he was willing to sell all the land to the right, looking from the tree toward the post below mentioned, of a line extending from that tree to a fence post upon which a stone had been placed on the opposite [244]*244side of said tract. Thompson said that he picked that particular fence post because it was the same distance from the corner in abutting property referred to as the Gill property along that fence line as was the tree in the opposite fence line from the corner in the Gill property at the end of that line — that he had stepped off the distance between the tree and the corner on the one side of the tract under discussion and stepped off the same distance on the other side and thus arrived at the fence post marked by the stone, thus making thereof two opposite lines equal.

3. Finally, a day or two prior to May 25, 1948, Harold R. Sumner and Norman M. Thompson orally agreed that the Thompsons would sell and that Sumner would buy all the land to the right of the line connecting the tree with the fence post hereinbefore indicated for the price of $225 an acre.

4. On May 25, 1948, a written agreement for the sale of real estate was entered into between the parties hereto in the office of John I. Watson, Esquire, Oxford, under the terms of which Norman M. Thompson and Maude M. D. Thompson, his wife, agreed to sell to Harold R. Sumner, who agreed to purchase “ALL THAT CERTAIN lot or piece of land, situate in Lower Oxford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, being the western part of the sellers’ farm, containing between thirty and thirty-five acres of land, more or less, bounded on the west 'by the Gill Estate, on the south by Theodore Reburn, on the east by Thompson and on the north by Sumner, description to be in accordance with survey to be made by Arthur Crowell, Registered Surveyor”, at the price of $225 per acre according to the survey, five percent or $375 to be paid on the signing of the agreement, the balance in cash at the time fixed for final settlement. The agreement provided that the premises were to be conveyed free and clear of all encumbrances and easements except [245]*245those disclosed by a physical examination of the premises and the sellers gave the buyer the right to farm the premises at the signing of the agreement. It provided further that the title would be such as would be insured by any reputable title company and for the performance of the agreement on or before 30 days from the date .thereof; that the cost to survey would be borne equally between the sellers and the buyer and all growing crops in the ground be included in the agreement of sale. The agreement was signed in the presence of Jennie B. Root, Mr. Watson’s secretary, after it had been prepared by her.

5. The description of the real estate to be sold as contained in the agreement of sale hereinabove quoted was dictated to Miss Root by defendant, Norman M. Thompson, in the presence of his wife and plaintiff.

6. Upon the execution of the agreement, plaintiff gave defendants his check for $375, the amount of the down payment above mentioned, which they accepted.

7. On the afternoon of the same day plaintiff went upon the land of defendants that he believed was contemplated by the agreement and planted corn there.

8. On the following day, May 26, 1948, defendant, Maude M. D. Thompson, called plaintiff on the telephone and told him she was not going to sell 30 acres of ground.

9. A day or two thereafter it was agreed orally by and between the parties hereto that if the Thompsons would forego a demand they were making that plaintiff sign a note for $250 contended to be due them by reason of crops already planted in the land contemplated and intended to be conveyed, the land would be limited to 30 acres only.

10. At the time of the signing of the agreement on May 25, 1948, plaintiff, Sumner, believed that the abutting owners of the tract to be sold were himself on the one side, the Gill estate on the west side, Theodore [246]*246Reburn on the whole of the south side, the Thompsons on the east side. Plaintiff did not learn that the Gill estate owned part of the land on the south of the Thompson tract until after the complaint in this matter had been filed and served.

11. On June 1,1948, defendant, Norman M. Thompson, appeared in the office of John I. Watson, Esq., in Oxford, and there said to Mr. Watson in the presence of his secretary, Jennie B. Root, that he had made a mistake and that he would rather fight with Sumner than with his wife’s family and he handed the check given by Sumner to defendants as down money on the date of the execution of the agreement to Mr. Watson and Mr. Watson refused to accept it. At that time he wanted the agreement surrendered and wanted to call the whole thing off, and told Mr. Watson that he and Mrs. Thompson were not going to sell any part of their farm. Upon his leaving the office, the check which had been offered to Mr. Watson and which he refused to accept, was found on the secretary’s desk in the outer office through which Mr. Thompson had to go upon leaving.

12. On June 3, 1948, Mr. Watson dictated a letter addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Norman M. Thompson, Oxford, R. D., Pennsylvania, informing them that Mr. Sumner intended to go through with the agreement and suggesting settlement to be held in his office in the Masonic Building on June 24, 1948, at 10 a. m. This letter was typed, signed and mailed. The check for the down money was enclosed therein.

13. On June 2, 1948, defendants notified plaintiff that they were not going to sell him any ground at all, Thompson saying that “the agreement (of sale) wasn’t any good.”

14. On June 2, 1948, Arthur Crowell, registered surveyor, went to the Thompson property in Lower Ox[247]*247ford Township, and there, over objections made by Thompson, made a survey of a tract containing 30 acres according to instructions he received from plaintiff, Harold R.

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Bluebook (online)
70 Pa. D. & C. 242, 1949 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sumner-v-thompson-pactcomplcheste-1949.