Court Opinion

ID: 9849444
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:40:13.442179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:24.383283
License: Public Domain

*468POFF, J.,
concurring.
I concur in the Court’s conclusion and the ratio decidendi. I think it is important, however, to emphasize that the analysis rests upon the law of the case as defined in the instructions to the jury.
In my view, the law of the case is not the law of Virginia. Contrary to the trial court’s instruction, a purchaser of a house who seeks to rescind an executory contract of sale for fraudulent misrepresentation concerning the condition of the property need not show that the property was so defective as to be “unsaleable and unfit for occupancy”. A defect of less consequence may be a fact material to the formation of the contract. Misrepresentation of such a fact m.ay support rescission for fraud in the inducement. See, e.g., Brame v. Guarantee Finance Company, 139 Va. 394, 408, 124 S.E. 477, 481 (1924); Max Meadows Land and Improvement Co. v. Brady, 92 Va. 71, 77, 22 S.E. 845, 847 (1895).