Court Opinion

ID: 9655786
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:21:49.128208+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:21.907833
License: Public Domain

Currie, J.
{dissenting in part). I am in full accord with the principle enunciated in the able majority opinion written by Mr. Justice Brown that the right of a vendee, who without legal cause repudiates a contract to purchase land, to recover his down payment is dependent upon showing that the vendor will be unjustly enriched if he is permitted to retain the same.
Prof. Arthur L. Corbin, in his article in 40 Yale Law Journal, 1013, 1032, entitled “The Right of a Defaulting Vendee to the Restitution of Instalments Paid,” summarizes his conclusions as follows:
*536“The cases denying restitution can, in the light of the preceding discussion, be justified on one or more of the following grounds: (1) The defendant has not rescinded and remains ready and willing to perform, and still has a right to specific performance by the vendee; (2) the plaintiff has not shown that the injury caused by his breach is less than the instalments received by the defendant;' (3) there is an express provision that the money may be retained by the vendor and the facts are such as to make this a genuine provision for liquidated damages, and not one for a penalty or forfeiture. If the facts are such that none of these justifications exists, restitution should be allowed.” (Emphasis supplied.)
It is clear that the instant case does not fall within (1) and (3) above. With respect to (2) above, the plaintiff vendees did establish that approximately two months after they breached their contract the defendant vendor sold the premises to another purchaser for $1,500 in excess of the contract price which the plaintiffs had agreed to pay for the same. This prima facie established that defendant had sustained no loss by reason of plaintiffs’ breach of contract, and it then devolved upon defendant to prove special damages in order for him to claim a forfeiture of plaintiffs’ down payment.
Inasmuch as the trial court apparently held on the authority of earlier decisions of this court that defendant was entitled to retain the down payment, irrespective of whether he sustained any damages by reason of plaintiffs’ repudiation, I would remand the cause for the purpose of a determination of the issue of unjust enrichment. I see no reason why the principle of unjust enrichment should not be applied to a $500 down payment as well as to one of $5,000 in amount.