Brief Fact Summary. Plaintiffs contracted with Defendants to purchase a home. Plaintiffs delayed the delivery date until December 15, without any indication that title could be rejected. After investigation, Plaintiff discovered that title was unmarketable.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. While a vendee can recover his money paid on a contract from a vendor who defaults on law day without a showing of tender or even of willingness and ability to perform where the vendor’s title is incurably defective, a tender and demand are required to put the vendor in default where his title could be cleared without difficulty in a reasonable time.
Issue. Are the Plaintiffs entitled to a return of the deposit?
Held. No. Judgment affirmed.
While a vendee can recover his money paid on a contract from a vendor who defaults on law day without a showing of tender or even of willingness and ability to perform where the vendor’s title is incurably defective, a tender and demand are required to put the vendor in default when his title could be cleared without difficulty in a reasonable time. The vendor in such case is entitled to a reasonable time after law day to make his title good.
The advance rejection here by the Plaintiffs was unjustified and was an anticipatory breach of contract.
Plaintiffs are barred from recovering the deposit from a vendor whose title defects were curable and whose performance was never demanded on law day. The Plaintiffs were required to tender their performance on law day in order to put the vendor in breach, but if the defects were easily curable the Defendant would be entitled to an adjournment to clear the title.
A vendor with incurable defects, on the other hand, is automatically in default, whereas a vendor with curable title defects must be placed in default by a tender and demand, which was not done by Plaintiffs.
The Defendant is excused from performance by inability to cure defects when such inability is caused by a lack of advance notice from Plaintiffs of the specific defects.
A vendor is entitled to a reasonable time beyond law day to make his title good.
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