Court Opinion

ID: 9569533
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:14:41.204244+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:03:23.918951
License: Public Domain

OAKS, Justice
(concurring with comments):
I concur in the Court’s opinion, but desire to add an additional caveat.
Cases cited in the majority opinion show that a buyer can rescind a real estate contract when it appears that there is a substantial doubt that the seller will be able to fulfill his commitment to deliver the agreed title at the agreed time. But the variety of circumstances that can arise with a title during the executory period of a real estate contract and the variety of possible explanations that can be given for apparent problems or negative prospects make it imperative that the buyer not act unilaterally in renouncing a contract because of a particular problem or prospect without giving the seller an opportunity and a reasonable time to explain or give assurances. The fact that these buyers renounced the contract without making any inquiry of the sellers as to their actual ownership or ability to acquire title to fulfill their contract obligation is therefore critical to my concurrence in the Court’s opinion.
If the buyers had made such inquiry and had been given the facts that appear in the record in this case, the buyers would have been entitled to demand that the sellers obtain reconveyance from their grantees (Wright’s parents), failing which the buyers would have the remedy they sought in this case. In view of the motive for the sellers’ conveyance to these grantees, the sellers may not have been able to enforce the grantees’ oral promise to reconvey when the Western General lawsuit was resolved. E.g., MacRae v. MacRae, Ariz., 294 P. 280 (1930) (refusing equitable relief on a conveyance and oral undertaking remarkably similar to this case); In re Xydias’ Estate, 92 Cal.App.2d 857, 208 P.2d 378 (1949) (same); Bogert, Trusts & Trustees § 211, pp. 69-84 (rev. 2d ed. 1979). Also, see U.C.A., 1953, § 25-1-7 (fraudulent conveyance); Barker v. Dunham, 9 Utah 2d 244, 342 P.2d 867 (1959) (same). The sellers’ rights to compel reconveyance pursuant to their grantees’ oral promise are, in any case, sufficiently doubtful that the property cannot be assumed to be available to them on demand. U.C.A., 1953, § 25-5-1; Restatement of Trusts, Second § 44 (1959).
This is just the sort of circumstance where the buyers should not be required to assume the risk of the sellers’ inability to perform for the duration of the contract. The buyers should therefore be able to demand proof of reconveyance from the grantees to their sellers, failing which they should be entitled to rescission as sought in this case.