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57 N.C. 77

Murdock v. . Anderson

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided June 5, 1858

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1858-06-05

Cause removed from the Court of Equity of Orange county. The bill alleged a parol contract, which was, that the defendant should convey to the plaintiff, Murdoch, a certain house and lot, in the town of Hillsboro’, which is described in the bill according to certain metes and bounds, but the only memorandum, or written evidence of the contract, relied on, was the following : “Deceived of A. C. Murdock one hundred dollars in tinware, and one carryall at seventy-five dollars,…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1858-06-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently May 1964

5 state decisions

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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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Pearson, J.

¶1 It is the misfortune of the plaintiffs that the contract was not reduced to writing, at the time it was entered into. The defendant denies the contract as alleged in the bill, and the plaintiff is forced to rely on a recital set out in a receipt for a part of the purchase-money. ¥e think the 'evidence is insufficient, because the receipt contains no description of the house and lot, by which it can be identified.

¶2 This conclusion is fully supported by the authorities, Mallory v. Mallory, Busb. Eq. 80; Plummer v. Owens, ib. 254; Allen v. Chambers, 4 Ire. Eq. 125.

¶3 The distinction is this: where a sufficient description is given, parol evidence must be resorted to, in order to fit the description to the thing ; but where an insufficient description is given, or where there is no description, (as in our case) such evidence is inadmissible. We deem it unnecessary to enter into a discussion of the subject; Deaf and Dumb Institute v. Norwood, Busb. Eq. 65,

¶4*79 This Court cannot assume jurisdiction to decree repayment of the $175; the contract being void, the money can be recovered at law, in an action -for money had and received ; Ellis v. Ellis, 1 Dev. Eq. 398; and there is no peculiar equitable ingredient presented by this case.

¶5 Per Curiam, The bill must be dismissed.

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