26 N.J. Eq. 481 | New York Court of Chancery | 1875
The complainant asks the specific performance of a contract, whereby he agreed to convey to Mr. Keppler a house and lot on drier avenue, in Elizabeth City, ata valuation of $15,750, and the defendant, in payment of that sum, agreed to pay $750 in money, to assume the payment of a mortgage for $7500 on the property to be conveyed to him, and to convey to the complainant a house and lot on Anna street, in the same city, valued at $7500. The cash payment was'made at the execution of the contract.
Among the defences set up, it is alleged the complainant procured the contract by fraudulent representations as to the cost of the house, which he had recently built, and as to the value of the lot whereon it stood. If these facts are established, the complainant’s prayer must be denied. On a bill for specific performance, the court will grant or refuse its aid, according to the justice of the case; it will never extend its aid to a suitor who has practiced a fraud, or procured the contract by a misrepresentation of a material fact. Miller v. Chetwood, 1 Green’s Ch. 208 ; 2 Chitty’s Con. (11 Am. ed.) 1473.
An intentional misrepresentation of a fact, materially affecting the value or use of the property, will deprive the party making it of all right to a remedy in equity. Wuesthoff v. Seymour, 7 C. E. Green 69.
The remedy by specific performance is discretionary; the question is not, what must the court do, but what, in view of all the circumstances of the case in judgment, should it do to further justice. When the contract has been fairly procured, and its enforcement will work no injustice or hardship, it is enforced almost as a matter of course ; but, if it has been procured by any sort of fraud or falsehood, or its enforcement will be attended with great hardship or manifest injustice, the court will refuse its aid. Seymour v. Delancey, 6 Johns. Ch. 222; King v. Morford, Saxton 281 ; Rodman v. Zilley, Ib. 324; Conover v. Wardell, 5 C. E. Green 273 ; Story’s Eq. Jur., §§ 750 a, 751.
Were these representations true? The complainant has not attempted to show their truth. No attempt has been made to show that any lands on Grier avenue were ever sold for $100 a foot. The complainant admits the contract price for building his house was $6666. The conviction is irresistible, that these representations were known to be untrue at the time they were uttered, and that they were made to entrap the defendant into a contract to take complainant’s property at a valuation of one-fourth, or at least one-fifth, in excess of its fair value. A court whose delight it is to do justice, will not give its aid to a suitor whose title to relief rests upon an engagement procured by false words.
Let the bill be dismissed, with costs. I will so advise.