Case Name: Daniel Felter v. Jacob Weybright et al.
Court: Supreme Court of Ohio
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1837-12
Citations: 8 Ohio 167
Docket Number: 
Parties: Daniel Felter v. Jacob Weybright et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: Cases decided in the supreme court of ohio : upon the circuit at the special sessions in Columbus
Volume: 8
Pages: 170–171

Head Matter:
Daniel Felter v. Jacob Weybright et al.
A contract to convey land sold, on the 1st of August, or as soon as the vender shall pay two thousand dollars, is fixed for ultimate execution on August-1, 1835. A subsequent tender of a conveyance does not entitle the vendor to an action for the purchase money.
This cause was adjourned from the county of Montgomery-., It was an action of debt, by the vendor of a tract of land, against, the purchasers, to recover an installment of the purchase money. The pleadings and case reserved involved sundry points, but the-court, by the decision of one, rendered it unnecessary to consider any other.
*The contract bore date September 8, 1834, and stipulated that the vendor should convey to the vendees, on or before August 1, 1835, or as soon as the vendees shall pay to the vendor two-thousand dollars; and then the vendees shall give their notes for four thousand dollars, payable in six annual installments.
The declaration averred, that on April 28, 1836, the vendor, the plaintiff, tendered to the vendees a deed, and demanded the two thousand dollars, and the obligations for the four thousand dollars, which the vendors refused, etc.; whereby an action accrued to demand and have the two thousand dollars. The defendants craved oyer, and demurred.
Stoddard, for plaintiff.
Holt, for defendants.

Opinion:
G-rimke, J.,
delivered the opinion of the court:
When an instrument of writing is drawn with any degree of obscurity, it is impossible to give an interpretation to it which shall be absolutely satisfactory. In the attempt to ascertain the true meaning, it is unavoidable that we should, .to some extent, substitute our individual judgments in the place of that of the-parties. This instrument, though speaking of' the plainest things, of matters which may be reduced to the greatest precision and certainty, is yet so ambiguous, that, without giving very close attention to it, different minds might be led to give an entire different construction to it. The conclusion to which we have coméis, that August 1,1835, is the ultimate time fixed for the execution of the contract; that the terms, "or as soon as the vendees shall pay to the vendor two thousand dollars," relate only to time between the making of the contract and August 1, 1835, within which the vendee, by the payment of the two thousand dollars,, might hasten his right to demand a conveyance. This interpretation of the contract precludes the plaintiff from maintaining his action on the tender of a deed in April, 1836; and judgment on the demurrer must be given for the defendant.