12 Mich. 352 | Mich. | 1864
By the first written contract the plaintiff had the option, on any default in payment, to treat the contract as void, and the defendant was thenceforth to be deemed a tenant at will; plaintiff having a right to re - sell the land without being liable to any damage in consequence of such sale, or to return any payment which had been made on the contract. Defendant having failed to pay the installment of one hundred dollars due February 10, 1861, and the interest on the two thousand dollars then due, the plaintiff elected to treat the contract as void,
He was at liberty to re-sell the land on such terms and for such price as he should be able to obtain, whether it were the same amount or more or less than the old contract had provided for.
He chose to sell the land again to the defendant, and entered into a new written contract with him to sell it for the price of two thousand dollars, which happens to be the same amount of principal which remained unpaid upon the old contract, including the one hundred dollars which had become due upon it. If by the new arrangement for a re-sale, it had been intended that the defendant should pay a sum equal not only to the principal unpaid but also the interest accrued upon the old contract, this would in effect have constituted a part of the price, and would therefore naturally have been included in the new written contract, which covered the whole subject matter of the land, the price and mode of payment.
It is true it would have been competent for the parties to have provided for so much of the price as was equal to this back interest by a separate and independent contract. But being in effect a part of the price, and therefore a part of the same subject matter as the new written contract, any verbal conversation or agreement which might have been had or made prior to or at the
The judgment of the Court below must be affirmed, with costs.