147 Minn. 219 | Minn. | 1920
This is an action to enforce specific performance of an oral contract to lease a dwelling house in the city of Minneapolis from November 1, 1919, to April 15, 1921, and to enjoin defendant from prosecuting an
Defendant is the owner of the premises in question, known as No. 3149 Colfax Avenue South, and had leased them, by an oral contract to one Sloan at a rental of $50 per month for a term ending April 15, 1920. Sloan removed from the state in the latter part of October, 1919, and, with a view of terminating his contract and finding a purchaser for the supply of coal which he had laid in for the winter, he brought about a meeting between plaintiff and defendant on October 25, 1919. At this meeting plaintiff and defendant made an oral agreement, by which defendant leased the premises to plaintiff for the remainder of Sloan’s term at a rental of $50 per month and for an additional period of one year at a rental of $55 per month, the lease to begin on November 1, 1919, and to end on April 15, 1921, a period of 17% months. This was the contract as claimed by plaintiff and found by the court. Defendant claimed that he leased the premises for the remainder of Sloan’s term only, and not for an additional year, but as the court has found the fact against him, and the finding is supported by sufficient evidence, we must take the contract to be as stated above.
The contract, being for a lease for a longer period than one year, was void under the statute of frauds, G-. S. 1913, § 7003, but where such a contract has been partly performed by one party, a court, in the exercise of its equitable powers, may, in proper cases, compel performance by the other party. G. S. 1913, § 7004. The principal controversy in this > -i is whether plaintiff has performed the contract on his part to such an extent, and has so changed his position in reliance upon it, that a court may decree performance on the part of defendant. The part performance necessary to remove the bar of the statute from an oral contract varies with the nature and purposes of the contract. Less is required to give validity to a short term lease than is required to give validity to a sale. Biddle v. Whitmore, 134 Minn. 68, 158 N. W. 808.
The record shows that plaintiff moved into the house at the beginning of his term under his lease and with defendant’s express consent; that he incurred a moderate expense for necessary furnishings; that he paid
Defendant insisted at the trial and again insists here that the complaint failed to state sufficient facts to take the ease out of the statute of frauds. We are unable to sustain this contention. It rests on the claim that the complaint failed to state that the acts of part performance relied upon were performed with defendant’s knowledge and consent, or were required by the contract. ’ The complaint, while not a model pleading, sets forth the contract. It also shows that'defendant was apprised of plaintiff’s rights in his former residence at the time of making the
In Koch v. Fischer, 122 Minn. 123, 142 N. W. 18, also cited by defendant, the acts relied upon as constituting part performance were done before the beginning of the term there in controversy and while the defendant was occupying the premises under a prior lease. They were presumed to have been done under and pursuant to the prior lease until the contrary was shown affirmatively. No such situation existed in the present case. Plaintiff took possession under the lease in controversy and there was no other to which his acts could be referred. Our conclusion is that the judgment should be affirmed. So ordered.