Opinion ID: 1379919
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Requirement of Deposit

Text: Yaffe argues that his $110,000 bid was not effectively received by the trustee because the advertisement contained the words: Cash. Bidder's deposit of 10% of the bid price may be required.... He points out that Code § 55-59.4(2) provides, in pertinent part: The trustee may require of any bidder at any sale a cash deposit of as much as ten per centum of the sale price... before his bid is received. ... (Emphasis added). He says that because he did not give the trustee a deposit, his bid was never received. We reject this reasoning. The statute is permissive, authorizing but not mandating a deposit requirement. The advertisement, which fixed the terms of the sale, left the requirement of a deposit to the trustee's discretion. Such a requirement is solely for the trustee's protection, and the trustee had authority to impose it or to waive it at his discretion. The deposit requirement was never made a condition precedent to the sale. If the trustee had continued to insist upon it, the bidder's refusal to make a deposit would have been a breach by the bidder, and no excuse for further nonperformance on his part. As it happened, however, the trustee waived the deposit requirement by recording the sale without a deposit and demanding settlement. Yaffe cannot complain of this waiver, which relieved him of part of the burden of performance.