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113 A.D. 806

Pelletreau v. Brennan

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · decided 1906-06-15

Appeal by the plaintiff, Ella M.-Pelletreau, from a judgment of the Supreme Court in favor of the defendants, entered in. the office of the clerk of the county of Kings on the 27th day of February, 1905, upon the decision of the court, rendered after a trial at the Kings County Special Term,’ dismissing the complaint upon tli.e merits.. Suit by the purchaser to enforce specific performance of -a' contract for the sale of real estate.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently January 1948

1 state decisions

Relies on Briggs v. . Partridge · Pratt v. . Hudson River Railroad Company · Waring v. . Ayres

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1906-06-15

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Gaynor, J.:

¶1The judgment has to be reversed. The findings of fact and conelusions of law are that the contract expresses no consideration, and is so vague and indefinite that a judgment of specific performance cannot be given upon it. The contract contains every essential, i. e., it gives the names of the seller and the buyer, expresses the consideration and describes the land to be conveyed by the defendants. The description, “Clinton and Joralemon street,” suffices, for it enables the land to be identified and fully described by evidence dehors (Waring v. Ayres, 40 N. Y. 357 ; Miller v. Tuck, 95 App. Div. 134 ; Levin v. Dietz, 106 id. 208) ; and such evidence was given. As the parties were dealing in the city of Flew York, the legal inference is that the contract refers to land there. That the land to he conveyed by the plaintiff as part consideration is not identified by the contract does not matter; it is only the seller who can raise the question of no written contract (Torres v. Thompson, 29 Misc. Rep. 526) ; and the plaintiff tendered performance. That the contract provides for the execution of a more formal contract "does not detract from it; it is enforcible (Pratt v. Hudson River R. R. Co., 21 N. Y. 305 ; Sanders v. Pottlitzer Bros. Fruit Co., 144 id. 209). The writing not being sealed, the action can be main*808tained by and against, ¡the-principals, for whom their agents signed, although the latter-signed--by- ¡their own names only (Briggs v. Partridge,. 64 N. Y. 357).

¶2The jndgment. should be reversed.

¶3Jenks and Hooker, JJ., concurred ; Rich and Miller, JJ., dissented

¶4Jndgment reversed and new trial granted, costs to abide the event,'. ... ¡:. „ ; i- - ., ¡,

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