23 Me. 131 | Me. | 1843
The opinion of the Court was by
The case presented by the bill, answer, and proof, shews, that the defendant made a verbal agreement with their committee to sell to the plaintiffs a small lot of land for the sum of five dollars as a site for the erection of a town house; that the committee made a report of that agreement in writing under date of December, 1829, which was accepted in a town meeting, April 5, 1830, the defendant being present and voting for its acceptance; that the plaintiffs caused a
It is also contended, that the defendant should in equity be enjoined from claiming and asserting a title to the lot, after having been instrumental in causing the plaintiffs to expend their money in building upon it under the promise of a title. It is true, that’one, who hears another bargain with a third person for an estate, and sees such third person pay for it, or expend money upon it, without making known his own title, will not be permitted in equity to disturb him in the enjoyment of the estate, because by so doing he knowingly abets or aids the seller to deceive and injure him. The essential ingredient, which destroys his own title, is the knowledge, that the purchaser is deceived with respect to the title, and that he must suffer by it, and the neglect, when he has an opportunity to do so, to undeceive him and save him from injury. But this rule cannot be applied to cases of contract, where all the parties to the contract fully understand the true state of the title, and one of them seeks relief from another. The plaintiffs in this case were not ignorant, that the title to the lot was in the defendant, and that they must rely upon his verbal contract to obtain a title to it. If the defendant, after having authorized the plaintiffs to place the building upon his land, had by any act
The MU is dismissed without costs.