Court Opinion

ID: 9591571
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:05:27.709301+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:02:30.259083
License: Public Domain

RUSSELL, J.,
dissenting.
The trial court gave careful consideration to the general rule stated in Waskey v. Thomas, 218 Va. 109, 235 S.E.2d 346 (1977), but noted that here, as in Waskey, the seller lacked the legal means to obtain the title he had promised to convey. The general rule was applied in Mundy v. Garland, 116 Va. 922, 936, 83 S.E. 491, 495 (1914), and again followed in Jennings v. Realty Developers, Inc., 210 Va. 476, 479-80, 171 S.E.2d 829, 832 (1970), but it is worthy of note that in each of those cases the seller had the legal means to compel the acquisition of good title, and thus to enable himself to perform his contractual obligation. In Waskey, we considered facts similar to those now before us, and held that the purchaser had the right to rescind.
The decision in Waskey did not, it seems to me, carve out a narrow exception limited solely to installment contracts. There, as in the case at bar, title to the land to be sold was vested in a husband and wife as tenants by the entireties. There, as here, only the husband signed the contract of sale. Affirming the trial court’s decree of rescission, we said:
Waskey not only had no present capacity to convey but also had no legal power to attain the capacity to convey before the date fixed for delivery of the deed. It is true that Waskey might have been enabled by some future eventuality to attain such capacity. For example, he might have been able to acquire full title by right of survivorship or by deed executed by himself and his wife. Code § 55-9 (Repl. Vol. 1974). It is possible, too, that if Mrs. Waskey remained of *563the same mind as she was on the date of trial, she might have been willing when the last installments were paid to join in her husband’s deeds to the purchasers. It is also possible, however, that none of these eventualities would have occurred or, alternatively, that Waskey might have predeceased his wife before that time. In such case, the purchasers, wholly without equitable remedy for specific performance, would have been left with no recourse but an action for damages against Waskey or his estate. See Ingram v. Lunsford, 216 Va. 785, 224 S.E.2d 129 (1976).
We conclude that, but for Waskey’s representation that he had the present capacity to convey good title, the purchasers would not have entered into these contracts. The purchasers were bargaining for title to land, an asset the law has always accorded unique value. Just as a court of law will not allow a husband to escape his liability for damages for breach of a contract to sell land held as a tenancy by the entireties on the ground that his wife did not sign the contract, Ingram v. Lunsford, supra, a court of equity may, in the sound exercise of its discretion, uphold rescission of a contract which, on the one hand, enables a husband to avoid his promise to convey good title on the ground that his wife did not sign the contract, and, on the other hand, awards him stipulated damages if the vendee, learning that the vendor’s promise is unenforceable, rescinds the contract.
Waskey, 218 Va. at 113-14, 235 S.E.2d at 349. The foregoing language leads me to conclude that in Waskey, the Court’s reasoning depended not upon the nature of an installment contract, but upon the fact that the seller lacked the capacity to do as he had promised, and had no legal means of acquiring that capacity. As in the case before us, the seller’s ability to perform was conditioned upon the will of a stranger to the contract, not subject to his legal control.
This principle is hardly new. We noted, as early as Goddin v. Vaughn’s ex’x & als., 55 Va. (14 Gratt.) 102, 118 (1858), that a purchaser who discovers before settlement that the title he was to receive was not such as the seller had contracted to convey to him, would be justified in refusing to proceed further with the contract.
The foregoing authorities make it clear that where a husband alone has signed a contract to sell land which he and his wife own *564as tenants by the entireties, the purchaser is entitled to rescission in equity. Ingram v. Lunsford, 216 Va. 785, 224 S.E.2d 129 (1976), holds that the purchaser, in such circumstances, may have an action at law for breach of contract against the husband, based upon his inability to perform. In my view, reason and logic dictate that the purchaser should have the further option of repudiating the unenforceable contract and recovering his deposit in an action at law. I would, accordingly, affirm the judgment of the trial court.
CARRICO, C.J., joins in dissent.