Opinion ID: 1911460
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Hardship resulting from increase in the value of the property.

Text: It appears to be undisputed that the property to be acquired by Esso is now worth $73,000. But when the station was built its value was only $18,000. As to this increased value the Vice Chancellor said: Testimony in the record as to the present value of defendant's gasoline service station merely reflects the general real estate picture in Newark today. Not only the cheapening of the dollar but rapid industrial and residential growth in recent years have at least doubled or tripled most real estate values in the Newark area. Defendants have made and could make no showing that plaintiff had any peculiar knowledge that enabled it to foresee this turn of events. The Vice Chancellor accordingly applied the established rule that mere increase in land values, unaccompanied by other circumstances showing inequity, is not such hardship as justifies a court of equity in denying specific performance. See cases collected in 11 A.L.R.2d at pages 406-411. We are in accord with his conclusion. There is nothing in Godwin v. Collins, 3 Del.Ch. 189, or Willard v. Tayloe, 8 Wall. 577, 19 L.Ed. 501, inconsistent with this ruling. The former is a case of a bargain unconscionable when made. The latter case involved primarily the effect of the abandonment of gold as legal tender, but it was also shown that the property had greatly increased in value. As to this, Mr. Justice Field said that if the contract was fair when made, the parties are considered as having taken upon themselves the risk of subsequent fluctuations in the value of the property, and such fluctuations are not allowed to prevent its specific enforcement. We are not without some sympathy for a landowner who finds himself, after many years, divested of his property at a price substantially less than its value. But in this case his situation is the result of his own decision, made after consultation with his attorney and against the attorney's advice. He must be held to his bargain.