Court Opinion

ID: 9860291
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:17:16.980132+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:20:31.316845
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE STEIGMANN, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. The particular document before us is so bereft of any meaningful description that the majority’s resort to parol evidence amounts to “supply[ing] missing terms” of the purported contract, contrary to the sound analysis of the Guel court. Guel, 127 Ill. App. 3d at 40, 468 N.E.2d at 814. The document contained no description whatsoever of the property to be sold, except for a statement that the property contains 100 acres “more or less,” consisting of 83 acres of pasture and timber and 19 acres of tillable ground. This description contains nary a clue as to where this property might be located. Further obscuring the issue, this “description” does not identify Hathaway as the “owner” of the property but as the “seller.” The two are not equivalent. Hathaway could fully comply with the written terms of the document by purchasing any 83 acres of woods and 19 acres of tillable land and selling it to Crawley. Hathaway could meet the description of “seller” even if he were acting as an agent for some other, unnamed owner. In a big, largely rural state like Illinois, the description contained in the document could undoubtedly be applied to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of parcels of land. Because the law governing the Statute of Frauds permits Crawley to use parol evidence only to clarify the terms of the purported contract, not to supply missing terms, this court should agree with the trial court’s decision to grant Hathaway summary judgment. We should also reject Crawley’s argument that the land survey completed in October 1995 may be considered when determining whether the document constitutes a valid contract. The document, signed in June 1995, does not refer to any land survey, and the October 1995 land survey does not refer to the document. Although a contract may consist of several writings, they must be connected in some definite manner, physically or otherwise, so that it is clear they relate to the same matter. Davito, 96 Ill. App. 2d at 201-02, 238 N.E.2d at 413. Hathaway is correct that unless the land survey somehow indicates that it is to be attached as a supplement to the document, it may not be considered as part of the document. The land survey does not so indicate. Thus, the document and the land survey cannot be read together to create an enforceable contract that would satisfy the Statute of Frauds.