180 Pa. 542 | Pa. | 1897
Opinion by
This is a bill for specific performance of a contract to sell land, for the removal of a cloud upon title, and to prevent the fraudulent use of legal process for the accomplishment of a collusive and illegal purpose. As each of these grounds is. and has always been a subject of general equitable jurisdiction, the suggestion that there is a full remedy at law does not merit serious discussion, and the absence of a specific averment of want of adequate remedy at law, would not have been fatal even before the adoption of the present equity rules hy which merely formal averments are dispensed with.
But the point perhaps most relied on by the appellants is that the agreement is between Satterthwaite and Kohler, and the complainants not being parties have no standing to enforce it. There is no weight hr this objection. The agreement recites on its face that Kohler was “ acting forthe complainants, and they ratified his action by paying the money called for in the agreement: Swisshelm v. Swissvale Co., 95 Pa. 367; Sylvester v. Born, 132 Pa. 467; Yerkes v. Richards, 153 Pa. 646; s. c. 170 Pa. 346. Except for the statute of frauds the whole contract might have been in parol, and the statute was satisfied by the signature of the vendor.
It is further urged that the contract is void because Kohler was acting in a dual capacity as agent for the seller and also for the purchasers. It is conceded that if the facts were so, equity would refuse to enforce the contract, but the evidence entirely fails to show that in making the bargain, Kohler acted for any one but the vendor. He was a real estate agent, and had had this property in charge for two years .to sell, at the same price. His own testimony shows that he was negotiating
The equity set up in behalf of the other defendants, children of the vendor, is in substance that their mother bequeathed to them the sum of nine thousand dollars, which during her lifetime she had loaned or given to her husband, their father, and the latter on being called upon to pay was unable to do so without selling this land, and therefore made a parol arrangement by which, as set forth in the answer, “ subject to the existing incumbrances thereon, .... and subject to the payment of the other debts of said Edwin Satterthwaite, he shall hold said property for their use.” The evidence of this alleged agreement, as was said by the learned judge is meager, but taking it at its strongest, it makes out no interest in the land. It fails to establish an agreement to convey the farm to the children. The agreement, as testified to by the parties, as set out in the answers, and as recited in the deed from the father to the children, varies in essential particulars, and the learned judge took as favorable a view as the evidence would warrant when he held that “ the whole transaction shows that the children, instead of taking a mortgage, had such confidence in the father, and in the value of the farm, that they were content to look to him and his property to pay them at such time as they might make demand.”
The remaining defendant, Mrs. Carwithian, was a mere inter- ' .meddler, who attempted to help to defeat the complainants’ rights by a collusive suit on a prior mortgage. She had no equity of any kind, and was treated quite as well as she deserved when she was allowed her costs.
Decree affirmed at costs of appellants.