Court Opinion

ID: 5459827
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-09 19:31:49.769074+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:32:49.719405
License: Public Domain

By the Court, E. Darwin Smith, J.
The promissory note upon which this action is brought being collateral to the installment of the same amount upon the contract between the plaintiffs and the defendant McMillen, an action thereupon clearly cannot be maintained, unless the plaintiff could maintain an action on the contract, for the principal debt. By the terms of the contract, the defendant McMillen was to pay the $1000, the amount of the note, to the plaintiffs, on the 1st of May thereafter, (May 1st, 1858,) and on such payment the plaintiffs were to convey, by a good and sufficient deed, the premises therein described; and McMillen was also, at the *398game time, to execute a bond and mortgage for the balance of the purchase money. These acts were to be performed simultaneously. In such cases neither party can maintain an action without showing performance, or an offer to perform, on his part. (Tompkins v. Elliott, 5 Wend. 498. Judson v. Wass, 11 John. 525. 20 id. 15.)
If this action were upon the contract, the plaintiff would be bound to aver the delivery, or a tender, of a deed sufficient and effectual to pass a good title to all the premises described. (Fletcher v. Button, 4 Comst. 396.) But the action being upon the note, the plaintiff was not bound to count upon the contract, or refer to it in his complaint. While this does not affect the substantial rights of the parties, it casts upon the defendants the burden of showing the plaintiffs default, by way of defense. This the defendants attempted to do, at the trial, by showing that they were ready on the 1st of May to pay the $1000, and'offered to perform, but the plaintiffs did not perform in fact, and were not ready or able to perform on their part, but in fact had not and could not give a good title to all the premises described in the contract. The disposition of the cause at the circuit assumes that the defense was so far established. The case was withdrawn from the jury and a verdict ordered for the plaintiff, on the express ground that the defendant could not set up the breach of the contract by the plaintiff, by reason of the defect in their title, until McMillen had first surrendered the possession of the premises; and that so long as he remained in possession he must be deemed as having elected to continue the contract in force. This, it seems to me, was a mistaken view of the rights of the parties as they appeared at the trial. The ruling at the circuit would have been entirely correct if the defendant McMillen had been plaintiff and the action had been brought to recover the consideration money paid on the contract. In such case a party s<. . lag to rescind a contract must restore all he has received under it and place the opposite party in *399his original position. (14 Barb. 294. 2 id. 82. 2 Hill, 288. 1 Denio, 73.)
[Monroe General Term,
March 5, 1860.
But this is not the case of the rescission of a contract. The defendants did not seek to rescind the contract. They simply resisted, by way of defense, the claim of the plaintiffs to compel performance on the part of McMillen, while the plaintiffs themselves were in default, and were not able to perform.
Certainly, if the plaintiffs cannot give a good title to this farm, they should not recover the amount of the note. It may be that in equity the plaintiffs may compel a specific performance of this contract, as was done in the case of More v. Smedburgh, (8 Paige, 600.) But at law they cannot recover on it or on the note in this suit given as collateral thereto, unless they can give a good title to all the lands therein described. I cannot conceive how the possession by McMillen of the farm has any thing to do with the question whether the plaintiffs can maintain an action at law on the contract of McMillen or the note of the defendants. I think there should be a new trial, with costs to abide the event.
Welles, Johnson and Smith, Justices.]