Court Opinion

ID: 9734634
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:40:16.353975+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:49.652313
License: Public Domain

Boslaugh, J.,
dissenting.
The order of the trial court, while perhaps erroneous, was at least equitable. The majority opinion fails to do equity between the parties because it awards both the use of the unpaid purchase price and the income from the land to the purchaser.
From the time when a contract of sale of land should be performed the land is, in equity, the property of the vendee held by the vendor in trust for him, and the purchase price is the property of the vendor held in trust for him by the vendee. Upon specific performance the vendor is liable to account for the rents and profits and the vendee for the interest on the purchase price. Russell v. Western Nebraska Rest Home, Inc., 180 Neb. 728, 144 N.W.2d 728 (1966).
In McCleneghan v. Powell, 105 Neb. 306, 180 N.W. 576 (1920), cited in the majority opinion, the vendor *544recovered interest on the unpaid balance of the purchase price. That case does not support the result reached by the court in this case. Under the rule of the McCleneghan case, the purchaser in this case should be required to account to the owners for interest on the unpaid balance of the purchase price.
In the McCleneghan case we held that the vendor was entitled to interest on the unpaid balance of the purchase price because the evidence of the vendee failed to show that the vendee had either borrowed the money or held it unused for the benefit of the vendor. Because the evidence did not show that McCleneghan “had either borrowed or exclusively appropriated $20,000 and that the money was held continuously from March 1, 1918, unused and in readiness to be paid to the defendants Powell upon fulfilment of their part of the contract,” the defendants Powell were entitled to interest at the lawful rate from March 1, 1918, until the date the money was paid into court. Id. at 312, 180 N.W. at 579.
A mere tender or offer to perform is not enough to excuse the vendee from accounting for interest on the unpaid balance of the purchase price during the delay in performance. The evidence must show that the money was “appropriated” to the contract and “no benefit has accrued” to the vendee from the unpaid money before the vendee can avoid accounting to the vendor for interest on the purchase price.
In this case the evidence falls far short of satisfying the rule of the McCleneghan case. The parties merely stipulated that the vendee “was ready and willing and able to pay the full amount of the purchase price.” There is no showing that the vendee had borrowed the money and was paying interest on it, or had “appropriated” the money and derived no benefit from it.
If the income from the property is to be awarded to the purchaser, he should be required to account for interest on the unpaid balance of the purchase price.
McCown and Hastings, JJ., join in this dissent.