§ 3390 — Specific performance of contracts

(a) Application to court.--If any person makes a legally binding agreement to purchase or sell real or personal estate and dies before its consummation, his personal representative shall have power to consummate it, but if he does not do so, the court, on the application of any party in interest and after such notice and with such security, if any, as it may direct, in its discretion, may order specific performance of the agreement if it would have been enforced specifically had the decedent not died.

(b) Execution and effect of deed or transfer.--Any necessary deed or transfer shall be executed by the personal representative or by such other person as the court shall direct. The title of any purchaser under an agreement in which the decedent was the vendor shall be the same as though the decedent had conveyed or transferred such property in his lifetime.

(c) Indexing in judgment or ejectment and miscellaneous indexes.--When any petition for specific performance of an agreement to purchase or sell real estate is filed, the prothonotary of the court of common pleas where the real estate or any part of it lies, upon the receipt of a certificate of such fact by the clerk of the court where the petition was filed, shall enter the petition upon either the judgment or ejectment and miscellaneous indexes against the defendants as directed by local rules of court and shall certify it as lis pendens in any certificate of search which he is required to make by virtue of his office.

Legislative History

Cross References.Section 3390 is referred to in sections 3546, 5521 of this title.