155 Minn. 114 | Minn. | 1923
Action to recover $2,500 paid by the plaintiff as earnest money on a contract for the sale of real property. There was a verdict for the plaintiff and the defendants appeal.
The defendant Dr. Sogge held the record title to certain property in Jackson county, he owning one-fourth, the J. T. Johnson Land Compahy, or J. T. Johnson, one-fourth, and one W. J. Malchow one-half. On April 22 Dr. Sogge, through the Johnson Land Company, contracted to sell the land, represented to contain 434.95 acres, to the plaintiff for $65,242.50. The plaintiff gave his $2,500 note as earnest money. It was negotiated, and afterwards paid by the plaintiff.
On April 29, 1920, the plaintiff entered into an earnest money contract with the defendant Carroll, through the Johnson Land Company, for the purchase of the land, represented to contain 440.46 acres, for $66,069, $2,500 cash, $10,000 March 1, 1921, $36,000 by assuming a first mortgage, and $17,569 by the execution of a second mortgage. Carroll was a straw man. The purpose of the defendants, other than Dr. Sogge, was to put the sale through Carroll and get for themselves the benefit of $10 per acre. It will be noticed that Dr. Sogge’s contract with Carroll was at $10 less per acre than his earlier contract with the plaintiff, and that Carroll’s contract with the plaintiff was at the same price per acre as the contract between the plaintiff and Dr. Sogge, the difference in the total price being explained by the difference in acreage on wMch it was based.
The plaintiff claims that when the defendants came to him with the Carroll contract they represented that Carroll had bought the land from Dr. 'Sogge previously, that Dr. Sogge could not convey, and that the new contract was the same in terms as the one with Dr. Sogge. He was at work on his farm planting corn, took their word for it, and signed the contract. The $2,500 earnest money note given on the contract with Dr. Sogge was to stand as the earnest money payment on the Carroll contract. The defendants claim that they told the plaintiff that they wanted to put the contract through Carroll so that they could make a commission out of Dr. Sogge, and that he assented. The Carroll contract provided:
“Purchasers to be furnished with a good and merchantable abstract on or before Feby. 15, 1921, showing title in the name of seller. * * * And it is agreed that if the title to said premises is not good and cannot be made good within sixty days from the date hereof, this agreement shall be void, and the above twenty-five hundred dollars ($2500) refunded. But if the title to said premises is now good in seller’s name within sixty days, and said purchaser refuses to accept the same, said twenty-five hundred dollars ($2500) shall be forfeited to the said seller.”
Order affirmed.