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6 Cow. 296

Northrup v. Northrup

New York Supreme Court

Decided August 15, 1826

New York Supreme Court · decided 1826-08-15

Ok demurrer to the defendant’s plea. The plaintiff declared on a covenant, which, on oyer, was as follows : The defendant covenanted to pay certain rent due and in arrear, to one D. Tomlinson, on a certain farm, and all which should become due on the 25th of March, 1825; the whole to be paid on that day ; and the plaintiff covenanted, that on the defendant’s so paying the rent, he, the plaintiff, would give up and discharge a certain bond and mortgage.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1826-08-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently November 1881

3 state decisions

101826183018401850186018701880decided

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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¶1Curia, per

Savage, Ch, J.

¶2The plea is bad. The payment of the money to Tomlinson, on the day specified, is clearly a condition precedent. The performance by the plaintiff of his part of the agreement is not necessarily simultaneous ; but was naturally to be subsequent. A general averment of his readiness to perform, is all that *297can be necessary or proper. To aver a tender was certainly not necessary.

¶3Lord Mansfield, in Jones v. Barkley, (Doug. 690,) makes three classes of covenants ; 1. Such as are mutual and independent, where separate actions lie for breaches on either side ; 2. Covenants which are conditions, and dependent on each other, in which the performance of one depends on the prior performance of the other ; 3. Covenants which are mutual conditions to be performed at the same time, as to which the party who would maintain an action must, in general, offer or tender performance. I consider the plaintiff’s covenant as clearly belonging to the second class. The defendant’s covenant was absolute.

¶4The cases cited by the defendant’s counsel relate to the third class.

¶5The plaintiff must have judgment, with leave to the defendant to amend on payment of costs.

¶6Judgment for the plaintiff.

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