128 N.J. Eq. 183 | N.J. Ct. of Ch. | 1940
Complainants seek the specific performance of an agreement to convey real estate owned by the defendants Alcis E. Bates and Helen Bates (husband and wife). Said owners executed an option agreement with one William Veatch *184 Moore, who died shortly thereafter; Moore's widow, individually and as administratrix of his estate, by two separate instruments assigned the option to complainant. Defendants say (1) that the option was exercised too late, (2) that no tender of the purchase money was made, (3) that complainant's attempt to perform on his part was made at a time when he held an assignment of the option from the widow, individually only — not as administratrix, and (4) that they (defendants) are unable to perform by reason of the existence of a mortgage covering the lands in question (and other land), and by reason of the further fact that the lands are subject to the lien of two judgments and unpaid taxes.
The terms of the option agreement provide that the option must be exercised "on or before the expiration" of a certain lease made between defendants and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. That lease was dated January 11th, 1935, and was to run for one year, with the privilege on the part of the lessee to renew for four additional terms of one year each. In such case, if the lessee were to avail itself of the renewals provided for by the express terms of the lease, the lease could not be said to have ceased to exist at the end of the first year; on the contrary, the life of the lease would, in those circumstances, continue and extend for additional periods of one year each, at the election of the lessee, until the privilege of renewal were exhausted or forfeited. The lease was renewed for four consecutive terms and accordingly had not "expired" when complainant herein sought to exercise the option to purchase. The defendants' first point is therefore not sustained.
As to tender, Vice-Chancellor Foster said, in Meyer v. Reed,
On January 2d 1936, William Veatch Moore died at Marlton, New Jersey, intestate. Apparently the only asset of his estate was the option agreement herein; his widow, Esther K. Moore, and two children, Thomas K. Moore and Dorothy Jeanne Moore (the latter a minor), survived him. Mrs. Moore regarded her deceased husband's estate as insufficient in amount to require an application for letters of administration; accordingly, on March 5th, 1937, she assigned to complainant herein the option agreement which her husband held at the time of his death; the son, Thomas K. Moore, on the same day (March 5th, 1937) executed to complainant a release of any claim in and to said option; and Mrs. Moore, the widow, executed to complainant a bond to indemnify him against any possible claim of interest which the minor daughter might endeavor to assert upon coming of age. After complainant's title to the option was questioned at one of the hearings in this cause, the widow applied for letters of administration on the estate of the said William Veatch Moore, and on June 23d 1938, she was appointed administratrix; by assignment dated August 23d 1938, the administratrix transferred the option to complainant. The bill of complaint herein was supplemented to show the appointment of the *186 administratrix and the assignment by her in that capacity; and at a subsequent hearing herein proof was made in support of the bill as so supplemented. If any defect existed in complainant's title to the option before the appointment of the administratrix and the assignment by her (and I do not decide the point), the defect was subsequently cured. The supplement was filed before the lease to the Standard Oil Company had expired, and the exercise of the option to purchase was accordingly in time.
The last point, and the one most vigorously urged by defendants, is that they are unable to perform by reason of the existence of the mortgage and judgment liens on the land. The mortgage was made in 1920, in the amount of $3,500, covering a tract of about eighty-four acres, whereas the land in question covered by the option agreement comprises only four acres of that tract. The mortgage debt has been reduced to $2,640.03. Two judgments rendered against the defendants have, during the progress of this suit, been purchased by complainant. Since complainant tenders himself ready and willing to accept a conveyance subject to those liens (paragraph 3 of the supplement to the bill of complaint) I do not understand how the defendants can, in good faith, longer urge the existence of the liens as obstacles to performance.
In Coltinuk v. Hockstein,
In Hughes v. Hadley,
Vice-Chancellor Leaming, in Stein v. Francis,
*188A decree will be advised in accordance herewith.