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111 Ind. 68

Goodwine v. Morey

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided May 20, 1887

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1887-05-20

<p>IBeal Estate.—Executory Contract to Convey.—Suit to Enforce.—Tender of Deed.—Complaint.— Where the vendor seeks to enforce an executory contract for the conveyance of land, the complaint must aver a tender of a •sufficient .warranty deed, and.the-tender must be kept good by bringing the instrument into court, or by an averment of a readiness and willingness to execute a deed that will vest title in the purchaser.</p>

Relies on Mather v. Scoles · Small v. Reeves · Smith v. Turner

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1887-05-20

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently January 1958

17 state decisions

6018871890190019101920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Elliott, C. J.

¶1The appellee alleges in his complaint that, he entered into a parol contract with the appellant, wherein-he agreed to sell the latter a tract of land; that part of the consideration was paid and possession of the land was taken: under the contract. It is not averred in the complaint that the appellee has any title to the land, or that his deed will convey any, and the averment as to the tender of the deed reads thus: That before the bringing of this suit the plaintiff executed and tendered to the defendant a good and sufficient deed of general warranty.” The prayer of the complaint is for a personal judgment, and for the enforcement of' a vendor’s lien.

¶2Our decisions decláre that where the vendor seeks to enforce-an executory contract for the conveyance of land, he must, have a perfect title to the land at the time the purchase-money becomes due, and must, also, tender a warranty deed to the purchaser. Small v. Reeves, 14 Ind. 163; Parker v. McAllister, 14 Ind. 12.

¶3In Mix v. Ellsworth, 5 Ind. 517, a great number of cases are collected, and it was there held that an action for the-recovery of purchase-money could not be maintained unless, a deed had been tendered; but in. most of the cases there cited the question arose on a plea, so that those cases cannot: be regarded as fully in point here. The question as it is here presented, however, came directly before the court in Melton v. Coffelt, 59 Ind. 310, and it was decided that the pleading-must aver a tender of a sufficient warranty deed, and that the tender must be kept good by bringing the deed into court or by an averment of a readiness and willingness to execute a deed that would vest title in the purchaser. Under the-*70rule declared in the case last cited, the complaint must be held bad. There are other eases in our reports which declare a like doctrine. Cook v. Bean, 17 Ind. 504; Mather v. Scoles, 35 Ind. 1; Smith v. Turner, 50 Ind. 367; Sowle v. Holdridge, 63 Ind. 213 (218); Overly v. Tipton, 68 Ind. 410 (414).

Filed May 20, 1887.

¶4Judgment reversed.

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