107 Mich. 55 | Mich. | 1895
Plaintiff instituted this suit to recover damages for the violation of an executory paxml agreement that defendant would execute a lease to him of certain laxxds for one year, with the privilege of thx’ee, at the ■annual rental of flOO per year. The court instructed the jury that, if they found such to be the contract, the plaintiff was entitled to recover as damages the difference between the market value of the lease and What he •agreed to pay for it.
It is conceded that, if this was a contract for a lease for •a longer period than a year, it is void under the statute of frauds. 2 How. Stat. § 6181. It is settled that such a contract, unexecuted, cannot form the basis of an action or of a defense. Salb v. Campbell, 65 Wis. 405; Carney v. Mosher, 97 Mich. 554; Grimes v. Van Vechten, 20 Mich. 410; Hall v. Soule, 11 Mich. 494. The contention of the plaintiff is that the contract may be performed within one .year, and is therefore good for that period, in support of which he cites Barton v. Gray, 57 Mich. 634; Whiting v. Ohlert, 52 Mich. 462; Blake v. Voight, 134 N. Y. 69.
In Whiting v. OKlert the sole question decided was that •a parol agreement for a year’s lease, to begin in the future, is valid. Barton v. Gray goes no further than to hold that the statute of frauds does, not apply to- contracts which leave it uncertain whether they may or may not be performed within a year, or which depend upon a contingency that may happen within the year. Blake v. Voight holds that a verbal contract which contains an option allowing either party to terminate it within a year is not within the statute, although without the ■option it would be within the statute.
Judgment reversed, and new trial ordered.