Case ID: nys_60/html/0790-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "GAYNOR, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

TORRES et al. v. THOMPSON et al.
    (Supreme Court, Trial Term, Westchester County.
    November, 1899.)
    Vendor and Purchaser—Parol Contract—Payment or Consideration— Statute or Frauds.
    Where defendant agreed orally to pay for labor and material by the conveyance of certain land, in an action to recover for such labor and material evidence of such agreement was admissible, as the grantor alone could -question the validity of the contract under the statute of frauds.
    Action by Nicol Torres and others against John Thompson and others to recover for work and labor and material in building houses for defendants. There was a judgment for defendants, and plaintiffs move for a new trial on the minutes.
    Denied.
    Wilson Brown, Jr., for plaintiffs.
    Robert E. Farley, for defendants.
   GAYNOR, J.

It was pleaded as a defense that the work was done and material furnished under an agreement that the defendants should pay for the same by conveying to the plaintiffs certain land, and that they had tendered such conveyance. The contract was oral, and when oral evidence was offered of it by the defendants the plaintiffs’ objection to it was overruled. The exception to such ruling is not good. True, a contract for the sale of real property is void unless in writing and signed by the grantor. It does not need to be signed by the grantee; and when he pays the consideration he cannot refuse to accept the conveyance and recover back what he has paid. In such case it is only the grantor who can raise the question of no written contract. Collier v. Coates, 17 Barb. 471; Galvin v. Prentice, 45 N. Y. 162.

The motion is denied.