Court Opinion

ID: 7816492
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-07 17:38:13.820923+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:30:37.013450
License: Public Domain

George Rose Smith, J. (dissenting). The contract gave Levi Henry a vested interest in the 60 acres, as a donee beneficiary. That interest could be reduced or extinguished only if the parties reserved the power to take that action. Restatement, Contracts, § 142. It seems to me that the majority have adopted a strained construetion of the agreement in reaching the conclusion that the power of modification was reserved. The contract, after reciting the couple’s ownership of 68 acres, provided, that the house and eight acres would be sold for not less than $9,200, which was to be paid to the husband and used for the payment of debts. After the sale the rest of the property was to be conveyed to Levi Henry. There was no express reservation of the power to alter the contract to Levi Henry’s disadvantage. I am unable to find an implied reservation. If the contract had provided that Levi Henry would receive all the purchase money in excess of $9,200, if the property should sell for a greater amount, then there would be some logic and fairness in requiring Levi Henry to contribute to the deficit if the house and eight acres should sell for less than $9,200. But that was not the agreement. Any excess over $9,200 would have gone to the appellee-husband. Thus Levi Henry is put in the position of gaining nothing if the house and eight acres could be sold for more than the specified price but of being penalized if the property should sell for less than the amount. ‘£ The reservation of power on the part of the promisee to change the beneficiary or otherwise to vary the terms of a gift promise must ordinarily be expressed in specific terms.” Restatement, Contracts, § 14-2. The pivotal question here is whether Levi Henry’s parents reserved “in specific terms” the power to alter the gift to his detriment. The majority seem to realize that this agreement is at best equally susceptible of two conflicting interpretations. "While I do not agree that both interpretations are equally reasonable, even upon the majority’s premise we still ought to hold that the power to revoke the gift was not retained in such specific language as the law demands.