Court Opinion

ID: 9765889
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:23:32.440483+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:15.978630
License: Public Domain

Hammond, J.,
filed the following dissenting opinion:
The way of the transgressing reneger was made easy by the chancellor and this Court approved. To me, the decision is unfounded on the facts and unfortunate in result and implications. I would reverse.
The appellees entered into a written contract for the purchase of two lots in a suburban development, which was definite, certain and specific. The contract described the lots by numbers on a plat duly recorded, and provided that the land sold was subject to restrictions applicable to all lots on that plat, as set forth in a deed duly recorded, the place of reference being noted. The fifth restriction provides that no building, wall, fence or other structure shall be built or changed until the plans and specifications “and the grading plan of the plot” shall have been submitted to and approved in writing by the appellant. The right was reserved to reject any plans or specifications or “grading plan” not suitable or desirable, for aesthetic or other reasons, in relation to the site itself or by reason of the effect of the building or the grading plan on the outlook of adjacent or neighboring properties. If the appellant found it desirable or necessary, it could submit the proposed plans to an architect, selected by it but paid by the property owner. Restriction number seven reserves to the appellant the right at any time of grading any street, or afterwards, to enter upon any abutting lot and grade the portion adjacent to the street at a slope of two to one. It was not obligated to do so, or to maintain the slopes after the grading. Paragraph eight of the re*160strictions reserves the right to change the grade of streets at any time or from time to time.
The appellees, both of whom were in business, admitted that they read the contract before signing it, and that, in addition, they were told of the substance of the restrictions.
They desired a high lot. The two they bought may be considered as one; they are situated at the northwest corner of Glenkirk and Queens Ferry Roads. One of these streets was paved at the time of the signing of the contract and the grading of the other had been established and was shown by stakes. At the time of the purchase, the lot was in the same condition as it was at the time settlement was called for, and in approximately the same condition it was when the suit was brought and as it is at the present time. The lots have a frontage on Glenkirk Road of approximately ninety feet. Along this entire frontage at the time of purchase and at the present time, the lot rises almost perpendicularly for a height of twelve or fifteen feet. There is a frontage of seventy-five feet on Queens Ferry Road. At the time of purchase and now, all of that frontage rises almost perpendicularly for a height of twelve or fifteen feet. There has been no change whatever in those two frontages since the day appellees bought the lot. The owners of lot number three, which adjoins the rear of appellees’ lot on Queens Ferry Road, graded their lot so that a part of the rear of appellees’ lot — the fifty feet northwest of Queens Ferry Road— is approximately the same height above the neighboring lot as the rest of the lot is above the street. It is this grading by the neighbors which the appellees now say entitles them to refuse to comply with their contract.
The only support for the allegation is this. Mrs. Crawford testified that when they looked at the lots, they liked them “because of their height and the height of the ground around them.” She continued: “And we asked him if that ground would be disturbed and he said no, it would not, that those lots would remain on the level on which they showed then. * * * They were high on a hill, and we *161asked if they would remain that way, and he said yes they would.” Mr. Crawford’s testimony on the subject was that he did not go through with the contract “Because of the changing of the contour of the land adjoining our lots and the type homes that were built in there after we signed the contract.”
If misrepresentation is to serve as a basis for refusal of specific performance, and for rescission, it must not only be false and material but must have worked an actual injury to the complaining party and he must have had a right to rely on the full belief of its truth, for otherwise, as is said in Lucas v. Long, 125 Md. 420, 429: “* * * it was his own folly or fault, and he cannot ask of the Court to relieve him from the consequences.” Moreover, as is said in Pomeroy’s Specific Performance of Contracts, Third Ed., Sec. 219, p. 552, where the representation is general or is essentially an expression of opinion or expectation, the person to whom it is made is not justified in relying upon it and assuming it to be true, but is bound to make inquiry and examination for himself so as to ascertain the truth. Again, if the one to whom the misrepresentation has been made “* * * is, at the time when it is made, either from knowledge acquired previously, or from information obtained at that very moment, fully aware of the truth, acquainted with the facts as they really are, he cannot claim to be misled, and cannot dis-affirm or defeat the agreement on the ground that it was procured by means of the false statements.” Pomeroy, opus cited, Sec. 223, p. 558; Cityco Realty Co. of Baltimore v. Friedenwald, 130 Md. 329, 335.
It seems clear to me that in this case the appellees were not misled by the so-called misrepresentations, that they had no reason to believe them, assuming them to have been made, and that, in fact, they did not rely upon them. It seems entirely obvious that the real reason for their failure to go through with their contract was that they wished to build a much larger, more expensive and more pretentious house than those in the Glendale development, and proceeded to do so in another development, so that they had no use for the lots they had bought.
*162Glendale consists of a series of hills and dales. It had to be obvious to any person of ordinary intelligence who visited the development that some grading would have to be done on. every lot if it were to have access from the street and be built on. The appellees must have realized that they themselves would have to build a road from either Glenkirk Road or Queens Ferry Road, which would require substantial lowering of grade, and they must have realized that unless they intended to permit the frontage on the two streets to remain as cliffs, they would have to grade them to a slope which would have permitted growth of some form of ground covering. What was apparent in the case of their own lots was apparent also iff the case of the adjoining lots.
The argument that the owner of the neighboring lot had built a house whose roof would be visible from the appellees’ lot, seems entirely unconvincing. The roof of almost every house in the development is visible from neighboring houses because of the hilly terrain. Furthermore, the appellees had to observe, when they bought the lot, that the roofs of the houses to be built just across from them on the south side of Glenkirk Road and on the east side of Queens Ferry Road, would be always visible to them if no change whatever was made in the contour of the land, because all of those lots were far below the grade of appellees’ lot, almost precipitously so.
When the appellees purchased the lots they drove through a part of the development on which houses were already built. There were some twelve or fifteen of them. They could tell from these houses the general nature of the development. Some had signs on them, indicating a price of approximately $20,000. They negotiated for their lots in part in the office of the appellant’s agent Shaffenacker, in a house that had been built by the Preston Construction Company for speculation, which was for sale at $18,500, plus a ground rent. There were signs on other of the houses indicating that they were for sale— not by owners but by builders.
There seems to be absolutely no merit in the contention that the appellees could have been misled or were in doubt *163as to the character of the development or the kind of houses that had been and presumably were to be erected.
All that has been said is on the assumption that the appellees’ testimony is the only testimony in the case. Actually, Sheffenacker, the real estate man and agent of the appellant, testified without contradiction that he told the appellees that the Glendale Corporation would not itself do any grading, but if the individual lot owners wanted to grade, they could do so provided they submitted plans for the approval of the grading, as well as of the house to be built. The appellees admit that they were told of these restrictions as well as the fact that they read of them in the contract. It is impossible to tell from Mrs. Crawford’s one sentence of testimony (which is the only thing close to showing the alleged misrepresentation) whether she is referring to the lots which they bought or to other lots. Read literally, her testimony indicates that all she was inquiring about was the site of her own lots and that she was interested in not having that height disturbed.
When the Crawfords came back from their vacation, shortly before settlement time, they became interested in a lot in another development, having decided that a house of the type and of cost desired by them would be out of place in Glendale. The real estate man in the new development went to see Sheffenacker to see if they could be released from their contract. There was no mention of deception or of changes of contour of land. Mr. Crawford testified that he had never written or telephoned Shaffenacker or the Glendale Corporation asking them to be relieved of his contract, but that he wrote a letter to Sheffenacker, the day before settlement was due, in which he said: “We have watched Glendale being developed and do not feel that the houses being built are of the type that we believed would be constructed. If we built the house for which we have plans, we feel that we would be ‘over-building’ the development, and it would be an unwise investment.
“For the reasons stated above we would appreciate it if you will refund the deposit made on this property.” *164(Emp. sup.) There is no word or hint in that letter that the appellees had been deceived — merely that they had been mistaken in a belief. The answer is the first place the alleged misrepresentations are brought up. This does not add conviction or even plausibility to the claims. Cityco Realty Co. of Baltimore v. Friedenwald, supra, at page 335 of 130 Md. When asked why he finally decided not to build a house in Glendale, Mr. Crawford testified: “Because we wanted to build a 30 to $35,000 home and we didn’t feel it advisable to build it with the type of homes that were going up out there. If anything happened to me, my wife would be unable to get anything out of it due to the type of houses that were going up out there.” The record leaves no doubt in my mind that the Craw-fords considered it to be unwise as a business matter to build in Glendale and that was the real and, indeed, the only reason why they did not go ahead with their contract. It can be the only reason because the lots they bought are today in substantially the same condition as they were when they bought them. Undoubtedly, tjrey made a bad bargain, from their point of view, but it was one they made with their eyes open without any misrepresentations, as I see it; certainly, none that was material or on which they had a right to rely.
It is undenied that the lots are now worth more than the price paid by the appellees. No hardship whatever would result from requiring them to take title.