Court Opinion

ID: 9442875
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:02:20.71805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:48:28.288097
License: Public Domain

STEPHENS, Chief Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur in the view of the majority that the appeal was taken within time.
As to the disposition of the case on the merits, I dissent:1 I think that the rulings of the District Court on the basis of which it entered judgment against the appellant (plaintiff below and purchaser of the property in question in the case) and in favor of the appellee (defendant below and seller of the property) were erroneous.
The District Court ruled that the contract was lacking in a material element intended to be included, to wit, the time for performance. This is not borne out by the record. There is no evidence that the parties had agreed upon and intended to include in the contract a definite date. Moreover, the contract as executed, i. e., without the inclusion of a definite date, was, in my view, enforceable. It provided that “Within - days from the date of acceptance hereof by the seller, or as soon thereafter as a report on the title can be secured if promptly ordered, and/or survey, if required, the seller and purchaser are required and agree to make full settlement in accordance with the terms hereof.” With the blank not filled in, this provision means, it seems to me, that the purchaser and seller were required, and that they agreed, to make full settlement as soon after the date of acceptance by the seller as a report on the title could be secured and/or a survey, if required, made, if promptly ordered. The phrase “if promptly ordered” is to be regarded, I think, as a condition precedent to the effectiveness of the seller’s obligation. It is true that the provision is inexplicit as to whose duty it was to perform the condition. But because thus inexplicit it is subject to parol clarification; and the testimony undisput-edly shows that the purchaser was to order the report on the title and that this was in accordance with local real estate practice. *650Acceptance by the seller was on a definite date, May 21, 1946. It follows that the seller was bound' — -for it is not in dispute that a report on the title was promptly ordered by the purchaser and there is no evidence that a survey was required. The foregoing construction of the contract is reasonable and will make the contract effective. Such a construction is to be favored over one which would render it ineffective. 3 Williston, Contracts § 620 (Rev.Ed.).
The District Court ruled that the contract was void for impossibility of performance. The theory of the court in this respect was, first, that the contract required the seller “to deliver her permit from the D. C. [District of Columbia] for the installation of an additional kitchen in the house, making it a two family dwelling,” but that the property was located in Maryland and that therefore a permit from the District of Columbia would be of no avail. But the contract also provided that “If the property involved in this contract is located in a jurisdiction other than the District of Columbia, wherever any reference is made to the District of Columbia or any official thereof, the name of the jurisdiction in which property is located and the proper official thereof is substituted automatically.”
The theory of the court in respect of impossibility of performance was, second, that the property was located in a Maryland district restricted by zoning to single-family detached dwellings and that, therefore, the permit — to convert the property Into a two-family dwelling — called for by the contract was not obtainable, assuming that the clause in the contract requiring delivery by the seller of “her permit” should be read as requiring delivery of a valid permit. From this premise the court reasoned that the purchaser could have avoided the contract, had she desired to, because the seller was unable to supply such a permit, and the court then concluded that the seller could also avoid the contract because it was lacking in mutuality of obligation, I think this reasoning and conclusion without force. In the first place, the seller’s answers to the purchaser’s complaint in the instant case neither pleaded nor cited a zoning ordinance,2 and I find no proof of such an ordinance in the record of either the first or the second trial 3 — assuming that this court can properly consult the record in the earlier trial and assuming that the trial court could consider that record. The trial court could not, therefore, properly enter a judgment in favor of the seller upon the theory that such a zoning ordinance existed and was a bar to the purchaser’s suit for damages for breach of the contract of sale, because in the absence of pleading and proof of such an ordinance the trial court could judicially know nothing of it. Courts do not take judicial notice of municipal ordinances; they must be pleaded and proved. Gardner v. Capital Transit Co., 80 U.S.App.D.C. 297, 152 F.2d 288 (1945), certiorari denied 327 U.S. 795, 66 S.Ct. 824, 90 L.Ed. 1021 (1946); District of Columbia v. Petty, 37 App.D.C. 156 (1911), affirmed 229 U.S. 593, 33 S.Ct. 881, 57 L.Ed. 1343 (1913); Carras v. Birge, 211 S.*651W.2d 998 (Tex.Civ.App.1948). Moreover, I do not think it proper for this court to consider the evidence introduced at the first trial because, as the majority states, the decision of this court on the first appeal was correctly construed by the pretrial judge upon the remand as requiring all of the issues to be tried again. I think this court should abide by its remand and review the case on the record made by the trial court in the second trial alone. I find nothing to show that the trial court considered the record of the first trial and I think that it could not properly have done so, again because of the terms of the remand. In the second place, even if it be assumed that there was in existence a zoning ordinance forbidding the construction of two-family dwellings in the area in which the property involved in the instant case is located, it does not appear that the existence of such an ordinance required a judgment in favor of the seller. In the contract itself the seller agreed to deliver “her permit.” This is a distinct representation that such a permit existed. Also there was evidence in the second trial of words and conduct by the seller which in effect constituted a representation to the purchaser from which she might reasonably infer that a permit to convert the property into a two-family dwelling had been obtained.4 If, as a matter of fact, no permit had been obtained by the seller, her representation thus to the contrary, if intentional, amounted to an actually fraudulent inducement and, if negligent, to a constructively fraudulent inducement to the purchaser to enter into the contract. Smith v. Richards, 13 Pet. 26, 10 L.Ed. 42 (U.S. 1839); 23 Am.Jur. Fraud and Deceit § 4. A contract induced by fraud is voidable at the option of the innocent party, but the guilty party cannot take advantage of his own fraud to avoid his obligation under the contract should the innocent party choose to enforce it. This proposition is so elementary that a citation of secondary authorities is sufficient. 5Williston, Contracts § 1488 (Rev.Ed.); 12 Am.Jur. Contracts § 146; 17 C.J.S., Contracts, § 166. Accordingly, if the purchaser in the instant case desired to accept the property without a permit to convert it into a two-family dwelling, i. e., to accept less than that which was promised, she had a right to do so; and if the seller by conveying the property to an innocent third party made specific performance of the contract impossible, then the seller must respond in damages.
The point is made that the failure of the purchaser in the second trial to introduce proof of damages for breach of the contract justifies dismissal of the action. But it appears from the record that no opportunity was given the purchaser to present evidence on the issue of damages before the trial court awarded judgment for the seller upon the theory that the contract was unenforceable.5 Moreover, if refer*652ence by this court to the record of the first trial is proper, as the majority rules, to establish the existence and terms or the non-existence of a zoning ordinance, there would appear to be no reason why the record of the first trial is not similarly available to this court on the issue of damages. The record of the first trial contains expert testimony by witnesses called both for the purchaser and the seller on the subject of the fair market value of the property and all of these witnesses testified to amounts in excess of the sale price of $32,300 agreed upon in the contract of sale.6 There was thus some evidence of damage if the record of the first trial can be consulted. But since this case was remanded on the first appeal for a new trial upon all of the issues and therefore for the taking of evidence anew upon the issue of damages as well as upon the issue of liability, the case, were my view that the seller is liable on the contract to be accepted, should, I think, again be remanded for determination by the trial court of the damages due the purchaser for the seller’s breach of contract.
In view of the previous remand and of my view that the case should again be remanded, the following comment is pertinent. On the previous remand the trial court was directed to resolve the question of the seller’s mental capacity to contract. The only finding made by the trial court at the second trial that might be said to relate to this question is that “The defendant was an aged woman and was ill and confined to her bed” on the date the contract was signed. This does not constitute a finding or warrant a conclusion .that the seller was without capacity to contract. No such finding or conclusion would appear to be justified in view of uncontra-dicted testimony in the second trial to the effect that the seller, during her negotiations with the purchaser, was sitting up in bed and was at such times alert, intelligent and understanding. It may be commented further that there was uncontradicted testimony that the seller’s son, a lieutenant commander in the Navy, was present during her interviews with the purchaser. In view of this it could hardly be concluded that the purchaser was in a position to take advantage of the seller.7
I think, therefore, that judgment should have been entered for the purchaser, and that the judgment entered for the- seller should be reversed, and the case remanded for a determination of the purchaser’s damages.

. The executor for the seller was substituted as a party to this action prior to the second trial. The executor for the purchaser was substituted as a party prior to the hearing of the instant appeal. For convenience I shall in this opinion refer to the appellant as the purchaser and to the appellee as the seller.

. It is of interest to note that the amended answers of the seller of December 2 and December 9, 1946, do plead that the property in question in the case is in an area restricted by covenant to single-family dwellings; but the record contains no proof of this.

. Not even in the brief of the seller on this appeal is there a citation to such an ordinance, although that brief makes the contention that such an ordinance exists. The brief attempts to support this contention by reference to two items of evi- ’ dence contained in the transcript of the first trial. One of these items was testimony by a real estate expert that the neighborhood in question was exclusively single-family. The second item was the testimony of another witness engaged in the real estate business that he was familiar with the zoning of the area and that so far as he knew it was restricted to one-family dwellings. Assuming that the trial court in the second trial could properly consider these items of evidence (there is no showing that it did consider them) they do not properly establish the existence and terms of a zoning ordinance. The provisions of such an ordinance must be shown by an authenticated copy thereof. 2 Jones, Evidence, §§ 503, 504 (4th ed, 1938)

. The purchaser stated under cross examination: “In that conversation with Mrs. Hoffman [the' seller] when I first phoned her, the first time I ever spoke to her she said she was living in the house and converting it into apartments. . . . ”
Again, on crossexamination, the purchaser testified:
“Q. You didn’t inquire as to zoning? A. No, I didn’t, I never did.
* * *
“Q. Now, was the ability to convert this house an important element as to its value? A. To me personally it was, but I don’t think it would be to everybody.
“Q. Why, then, before you made a contract, didn’t you inquire into it? A. I couldn’t tell you why I didn’t but I didn’t. I believe it was because Mrs. Hoffman had already started doing it. It never occurred to me she would have started it if she couldn’t do it.
“Q. When you saw it in April or May, 1949, just what had she done about making an apartment out of it? A. She had made a kitchen on the second floor, and there was already one on the first floor, and the utensils in the house to make a third kitchen. I didn’t inquire.”

. Counsel for the seller interrupted the presentation of their case by counsel for the purchaser with the remark, “If the Court please, if the testimony that has been adduced thus far by Mr. Partridge, and apparently this is all the testimony he wants to introduce with respect to liability, then I move the Court to enter judgment for the defendant on the ground that the testimony of the plaintiff herself has established that this contract is one that is obviously impossible to perform.” [Emphasis supplied] A long colloquy between the court and both counsel then *652ensued as to the proper interpretation of the contract, ending in the court’s granting the motion for judgment for the defendant.

. One of the witnesses for the purchaser testified that as a single-family dwelling the fair market value of the property was $42,500 and as a two-family dwelling, $47,500. Another witness for the purchaser testified to $42,000 as a single-family dwelling and $46,500 as a two-family dwelling. A witness for the seller testified that the fair market value was $34,000 as a single-family dwelling.

. It may be noted also that counsel for the purchaser, in their brief on appeal and in their oral argument before this court, stated without contradiction that the seller was of approximately the same age as the purchaser. And during the second trial the purchaser stated during her ■ testimony that the seller “was as old as I am.”