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41 Cal. 420

Englander v. Rogers

California Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1871

California Supreme Court · decided 1871-07-01

The complaint alleges that the plaintiff, om the 9th of May, 1867, entered into an agreement with the defendant to purchase from him a lot of land in San Francisco, for two thousand two hundred dollars, and paid him four hundred and eighty-one dollars and eighty-five cents as part of the purchase money, to be retained by the defendant if he should convey a good title to the plaintiff, but to be returned if the defendant should fail to make such a conveyance; that the…

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“. “To entitle the plaintiff to maintain the action on the contract set out in the complaint, he should, have averred a tender of the. unpaid portion of the purchase money, or some sufficient excuse for the omission to tender it'. The only 'allegation of the complaint on this point is that the plaintiff ,‘has been ready and willing during all the time aforesaid, and has' offered to accept and take the conveyance, pursuant to Said agreement, and to pay the balance of said purchase money.’ It is not. an averment that he tendered the purchase money. To constitute a valid tender in such a case, the party must have the money at hand and immediately under his control, and must then and there not only be ready and willing but produce and offer to pay it to the other party on the performance by him of the requisite condition.”. ■”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Eastern Oregon Land Co. v. Moody

Relies on Bakeman v. Pooler · Strong v. Blake

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1871-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently July 1975

2 federal appellate · 22 state decisions

10018711880189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

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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By the Court, Crockett, J.:

¶1The demurrer to the complaint ought to have been sustained. On the facts averred in the complaint, the payment of the remainder of the purchase money by the plaintiff, and the execution and delivery of a proper deed of conveyance by the' defendant, were concurrent acts, to be simultaneously performed. The covenants of the vendor and vendee were mutual and dependent, and neither could put the other in default, except by tendering a performance on his own part, unless the other party either waived the tender, or, by his conduct, rendered it unnecessary. To entitle the plaintiff' to maintain the action on the contract set out in the complaint, he should have averred a tender of the unpaid portion of the purchase money, or some sufficient excuse for the omission to tender it. The only allegation of the complaint on this point is that the plaintiff' “ has been ready and willing during all the time aforesaid, and has offered to accept and take said conveyance, pursuant to said agreement, and to pay the balance of said purchase money.” This is not an averment that he tendered the purchase money. To constitute a valid tender in such a ease, the party must have the money at hand, immediately under his control, and must then and there not only be ready and willing, but produce and offer to pay it to the other party, on the performance by him of the requisite condition. '(15 Wend. 637; 6 id. 22, n. a. 35; *423Strong v. Blake, 46 Barb. 227.) There is in this complaint no sufficient averment of a tender, nor of any excuse for the omission, and the demurrer ought to have been sustained on this ground.

¶2Judgment reversed and cause remanded, with an order to the Court below to sustain the demurrer to the complaint.

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