Court Opinion

ID: 9830997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 20:41:15.281403+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:28.994010
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
Appellant, by an able and earnest motion for rehearing, asks us to make many findings of fact and conclusions of law. It is our understanding that where the trial court has, at the conclusion of the plaintiff’s evidence, upon motion of defendant, granted a motion for a directed verdict in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff, on appeal the evidence is taken as true, and every logical inference is to be indulged in favor of the party against whom the verdict was directed.
In our original disposition of this case we tried to apply that rule to the facts. Also, we tried to announce our conclusions of law on such facts in our opinion. There is one matter, however, which we shall discuss a little more in detail; that is, with reference to the count for damages. It appears from the evidence, without dispute, that Mrs. Fairbanks and Condon thought, at the time the lease was executed, that the title was good, but for the lien and delinquent taxes described in the lease. The judgment liens complained of by Condon were recorded before the lease was executed. While the parties had constructive knowledge of their existence, the record shows that they had no knowledge of their existence in fact. In the letter of transmittal to the bank it was stated that Mrs. Fairbanks and Mr. Condon thought the title was good, but that a reasonable time for the examination of the title was to be ten days, and that in the event of any defects Mrs. Fairbanks agreed to use her best efforts, if need be, to assist in getting the title into condition. That she did use her best efforts to remove the judgment liens is shown beyond dispute by the testimony of Condon. Condon was advised that Mrs. Fairbanks had no money and Condon was unsuccessful in his attempts to assist her in raising such money. The last time the matter was discussed between Mrs. Fairbanks and Condon was during June or July, 1934, and from the time of the execution of the lease until that time Condon was unwilling to accept the lease with the title encumbered with the judgment liens.
On the 30th day of October, 1934, the husband of Mrs. Fairbanks advised Condon, on account of his filing an affidavit in the county in which the land was situated, that they did not desire any further business dealings with him. After the receipt of this communication from the Fairbanks, Condon did not communicate with the Fairbanks for a period of about eighteen months, and then through his counsel demanding a delivery of the lease. Mrs. Fairbanks could not give to Condon the title he was willing to receive, on account of the judgment liens. The record failing to show bad faith or fraud on the part of Mrs. Fairbanks, in her being unable to convey merchantable title to the lease to Condon, we are of the opinion that the rule stated by us in our original opinion is the correct one, and that we are not in conflict with Matthewson v. Fluhman, Tex.Com.App., 41 S.W.2d 204, *333207. In that case it is said: “Where the vendor acts in bad faith in failing or refusing to convey, or disables himself from conveying, the purchaser’s recovery is not limited to the purchase price paid, with interest and expenses, but he is entitled to compensation xor his actual loss, or, as sometimes expressed, damages for the loss of his bargain.’,’
Under the escrow letter there was no time fixed for Mrs. Fairbanks to cure the defects. The law would presume the parties intended a reasonable time. For a period of more than eighteen months Con-don was unwilling to accept the title which Mrs. Fairbanks could convey, and during such time Mrs. Fairbanks was unable to cure the defects in the title. We can see no fraud or bad faith on the part of Mrs. Fairbanks in withdrawing the lease and in conveying it to another, some time within three or four months thereafter.
There is another reason, we think, why the action of the trial court, on the count for damages, was correct: while the evidence shows that the value of the lease in question had increased, from the date of its execution to the time of the trial, the extent of such increase is left open to speculation. In other words, there is no evidence in the record before us upon which a jury could intelligently assess the damages of the claimed loss of appellant’s bargain.
Believing our original disposition of the cause is correct, the motion for rehearing is overruled.