102 N.Y.S. 287 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1907
The contract between the plaintiffs and the defendant was that the plaintiffs should pay the defendant $320 for four lots of land by paying $32 down and $20 a month thereafter. It was .made Julie 22nd, 1901. It contained a clause.that on default in any payment the seller might 30 days thereafter elect without notice that all the payments become forfeited, to her and belong to her as liquidated damages, and that thereupon the contract should terminate. .
;The. notice which the seller claims to have given — for "if is not. found by the trial court and is disputed that she gave any,, the court’s decision being based on. the purchasers’ defaults alone-^ was not of a forfeiture at all. To, make the forfeiture-she had to-put herself . in a position of strict fight. The. trial court should therefore have-given the plaintiffs' relief, . The defendant claimed -that she had sold, -the property to another for $950. after the plaintiffs’ last payment, and therefore could not specifically perform. Even so; the judgment should have been for some appropriate -equitable relief in lien, as that the defendant convey to the plaintiffs on payment of the balance- due on the contract or else refund to them the- amount they had . paid; or that stfflKteount to them for tlie second sale, at all events if it- were madej^^Mp faith toward the plaintiffs, and -the plaintiffs’ defaults are exculpe.
The-judgment should-be reversed and a-new trial-granted.
Hiesohberú, P. J„ Jenks,-Hooker and Miíler, JJ,, concurred.
Judgment reversed and new trial granted, costs- to abide the final-, .award of costs. ... ■