Court Opinion

ID: 9688250
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:41:44.542947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:36.876387
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
FOSTER, Justice.
It is well settled, as pointed out above, that to rescind a land sale contract for the failure of the other party, the party complaining of such failure must call upon the other to perform and give him a reasonable time after notice in which to comply or be foreclosed. Bay Minette Land Co. v. Stapleton, 224 Ala. 175, 139 So. 342; Elliott v. Howison, 146 Ala. 568(8), 40 So. 1018; J. M. Ackley & Co. v. HunterBenn & Co.'s Co., 166 Ala. 295, 51 So. 964; Stafford v. Colonial Mortgage & Bond Co., 221 Ala. 636, 130 So. 383.
It is contended that if this principle is here applicable, notice should be given prior to the institution of the suit and a failure on the part of the city to exercise its right to pay for the property has resulted.
We cannot agree to such contention. There are many situations in which a notice or a demand is important in establishing a claim in equity or at law. The processes of the court are usually regarded as sufficient to such legal requirements. This principle is illustrated in many situations and particularly with respect to a vendor and vendee. It is not necessary in order to enforce specific performance of a contract by the purchaser to offer to comply with the contract before filing the bill, the bill offering to do equity. Mitchell v. Walker, 235 Ala. 458, 179 So. 633; Zirkle v. Ball, 171 Ala. 568, 54 So. 1000; Cudd v. Wood, 205 Ala. 682 (11), 89 So. 52; Ashurst v. Peck, 101 Ala. 499(5), 14 So. 541. When the vendee is in default, the vendor has a right to elect whether he will abandon the contract and re-enter upon the premises or hold the vendee to his agreement. But “in neither case has he the right to any notice of the election of the vendor other than what the process would give him when proceedings are commenced.” Seabury v. Doe ex dem, Stewart, & Easton, 22 Ala. 207(3), 218; Mendota Coal & Coke Co. v. Eastern Railway & Lumber Co., 9 Cir., 53 F.2d 77; First National Bank v. Blocker, 150 Minn. 337, 185 N.W. 292; Angel v. Columbia Canal Co., 69 Wash. 550, 125 P. 766.
This suit was begun, as has been pointed out, by filing a statutory bill to quiet the title under section 1109, Title 7, Code. We observed above that in such a suit equity has broad powers extending to all matters affecting the title between the parties. Included in that statement of the principle would be the right of complainant to require the city to exercise its rights *610under the deed of July 22, 1872, but within such reasonable time as may be allowed by the court upon the election of the complainant to require an exercise of that right, and the filing of this bill with a prayer for foreclosure of such right was sufficient to invoke the jurisdiction of the equity court to that end and enable the complainant, through the processes of the court, to require the city to determine whether or not it will exercise its rights so conferred within such reasonable time as may be allowed. It will be observed that this right was given to the city about seventy-eight years ago. The complainant and its predecessors did not see fit to require the city to make an election prior to the time of the former adjudication of their claims, as was determined on June 27, 1918. So that up to that time forty-six years had expired and the city had done nothing toward exercising such rights and the property owner had not taken steps to require it, the court held in that case that it still existed; and now, thirty-two years after said decision, the city is still claiming that right to be exercised whenever it sees fit at any time in the future, and without any duty on its part ever to act at any time in that regard.
While the terms of the provision give the city the right to act “at any time they may think proper,” we do not think this was intended to be perpetual, and that the city can stand off for seventy-eight years, one hundred and seventy-eight years or one thousand and seventy-eight years, and still hold on to the right when the complainant is seeking to have a determination and foreclosure of that right. The power of the city to perform at any time they think proper, we do not think lasts forever. But under the authorities, which we have cited, it should not be foreclosed until notice has been given and a reasonable time thereafter to act. Such is a strict foreclosure. In the enforcement of such a remedy the court prescribes a time in which the performance is to be had, just as we think the court may here fix such a time.
It is insisted the deed of July 22, 1872 provides a condition precedent to the institution of any such suit by complainant in this case, in that, it provides that the value of the dwelling and outhouses shall be assessed if the parties Cannot agree upon the value by referees under the arbitration laws of the State of Alabama. It will be observed there is nothing in said stipulation which makes an arbitration a condition precedent to the maintenance of a suit. A stipulation for arbitration of factual differences may or may not be a condition to recovery, and unless it is made a condition to recovery it is collateral to the contract and suit may be maintained without a compliance. Wright v. Evans, 53 Ala. 103. We quote from 53 Ala. at page 108: “A mere unexecuted agreement to submit is of no force, even when made by the party. It is not a bar to the suit, if made prior to its institution, or if made pending the suit, to its further maintenance.” The same principle is declared in the authorities generally. 5 Corpus Juris 42, section 68, states it as follows: “An agreement to submit to arbitration, not consummated by an award, is no bar to a suit at law or in equity concerning the subject matter submitted.” See, also, 6 C.J.S., Arbitration and Award, § 29. But in 13 Corpus Juris 680, it is said, “Where it is made by the contract a condition precedent, a provision for the submission of disputes to arbitration, * * * must be complied with before an action may be brought on the contract. The rule is otherwise, however, where the arbitration or approval is not made a condition precedent”. It is likewise similarly stated in 29 Am. Jur. 928, and 17 Corpus Juris Secundum, Contracts, § 499, page 1033.
We have had several cases in this State in which the clause providing for a limited arbitration also stipulated that no suit should be .brought until such arbitration had been complied with. We held in those cases that it is a condition precedent to the maintenance of the suit, and that a suit in violation of it was subject to a plea in abatement. McCullough v. Mill Owners Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 243 Ala. 67, 8 So.2d 404; Headley v. Aetna Ins. Co., 202 Ala. 384, 80 So. 466; Ex parte *611Birmingham Fire Ins. Co., 233 Ala. 370, 172 So. 99.
There is nothing in the deed here in question which indicates an intention to make arbitration a condition precedent to a suit in equity, such as is here involved, as we have interpreted it. There is of course no right to an action at law by this complainant, but his only right with respect to the situation is in equity, and we thnk it is such as we have indicated.
In our opinion, supra, we observed that the court, upon the request of the complainant, should ascertain the value of the improvements to be paid as a condition to opening the street. We did not indicate in that opinion the manner in which the court should proceed to ascertain the value of the improvements. This of course may be done pursuant to the terms of the deed of July 22, 1872, if the parties cannot agree and thereby obtain the benefit of the arbitration clause in the same. It is then in the nature of a reference of the cause to that extent. Snodgrass v. Armbrester, 90 Ala. 493, 7 So. 840; section 829, Title 7, Code.
Application for rehearing overruled.
BROWN, SIMPSON and STAKELY, JJ., concur.
LIVINGSTON and LAWSON, JJ., dissent.