PURCHASES. AGREEMENTS. Estate for life. AND (errors in description shall not vacate the contract). See ante, p. 32. AND further that any loss or damage which may happen to the said premises by fire, storm, or temIntervening ac pest (15 v), at any time between the date hereof and the completion of the said purchase, shall not in any wise vacate or affect the present contract. cidents not to affect the con tract. If vendor die before purchase completed, articles to be void. PROVIDED ALWAYS that in case the said (vendor) shall happen to depart this life at any time between the execution of this agreement and the completion of the said contract, these articles shall be void to all intents and purposes, and the said (purchaser) shall not be called upon or be considered liable to pay the purchase money or any part thereof unto the representatives of the said Immediate possession. Leasehold for lives.. (14) If the purchaser is anxious to be let into immediate possession, See ante, No. II. p. 32, n. (23). (15) If the premises are holden for lives, and are renewable on the death of any nominee, say, "Or any decrease which may take place in the value thereof by reason of the decease of any person or persons during the continuance or subsistence of whose lives the said premises are holden, at any time between the date hereof and the completion of the said purchase, shall not in any wise vacate or affect the present contract, but the said (vendor) shall in such case, at his own expense, renew the said lease, and add some other life or lives in the room of the persons so dying, between the age of person or years and years, to be named or approved of by the said (purchaser), (vendor), any rule of law or equity in any wise PURCHASES. notwithstanding (16). (16) The object of the express provisions in agreements is either to prevent the legal consequences which would follow without such express provisions, or to prevent doubts arising as to what the legal consequences for want of them would be. In an agreement for the purchase of an estate holden for the life only of the vendor, it is difficult to say what provision should, as on the part of both parties, be inserted as to the contract being void on his death between the inception and the completion of the contract, as the law does not appear to be settled as to whether without such a provision the purchaser would be bound to complete his purchase or not. It has been determined in such an event by Lord Keeper Wright, that where the estate was holden during the lives of three persons, and one of them died, the purchaser was not on that account at liberty to rescind the contract. See Wright v. Nutt, 1 P. Wms. 62: but his Lordship observed that had all the lives dropped it might have been different, for then the estate being gone, there would be nothing which could be conveyed to the purchaser in return for his money; but yet as the principle upon which the Courts of Equity proceed in compelling a specific performance is the same in this as in other cases, namely, that the subject of the contract from the time of the agreement is no longer the vendor's, but the purchaser's, in like manner as at law it would be had a conveyance been actually executed, it is difficult to say why a specific performance should not be decreed in all, as well as in some cases only, for although there may, by the happening of intervening contingencies, be nothing for the one to give or the other to receive, yet the rights of the respective parties having been previously fixed, it should seem that they ought not to be disturbed because an act of ceremony only has not been performed, and as one must lose all, what equity is there that it should fall on the vendor more than on the purchaser? But until the question is formally determined one way or the other, the interests of the vendor and purchaser seem to vary, and on the part of purchaser the better mode would be to make the death of the cestui que vie to be an avoidance of the contract, and on the part of AGREEMENTS. Estate for life. Death of vendor should be provided against. PURCHASES. AGREEMENTS. Estate for life. Contract by agent. AND (sum of £ by way of penalty, or of liquidated damages payable by either party on nonperformance). See ante, p. 37. IN WITNESS, (17 v), &c. the vendor to make the time of perfecting the conveyance the essence of the contract, leaving the rest open to chance. (17) If the articles be entered into by an agent on behalf of either the vendor or purchaser, See ante, No. II. p. 37, n. (31). 1 No. VII. An Agreement for the Purchase of a Reversion in a Freehold Estate. PURCHASES. AGREEMENTS. Reversion. ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT entered into this day of BETWEEN (the vendor) of, &c. for himself (1), his heirs (2), executors and administrators (3) of the one part, and (the purchaser) of, &c. for himself, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns of the other part, as follow, that is to say, purchase. The said (vendor) doth hereby agree to sell and Agreement for the said (purchaser) doth agree to purchase, ALL that the remainder or reversion of him the said (vendor) expectant upon, and to take effect in possession immediately after the decease, or other sooner determination of the estate for life, of (the tenant for life) of, &c. of and in ALL, &c. free from all incumbrances, at or for the price (4) or (1) If the contract be entered into by an agent for either Purchase, &c. party, see ante, No. II. p. 19, n. (1). (2) See ante, No. I. p. 2, n. (2). (3) See ibid. p. 3, n. (3). by an agent. (4) In the sale of a reversion, (and more particularly when On purchase of by the heir at law) it is material that the consideration bear reversion consisome reasonable proportion to the actual value of the interest be adéquate. disposed of, as the contract will otherwise be in danger of being deration should PURCHASES. Sum of £ AGREEMENTS. Reversion. Vendor to fur nish abstract in a given time. And on receipt of purchase money to execute convey ance. Consideration a transfer of stock. An annuity. Purchaser to take subject to defects. Title must be deduced from time of creation (5v), to be paid at the time and in the manner hereinafter mentioned. AND the said (vendor) doth promise and agree to deliver unto the said (purchaser) within one calendar month from the date hereof a full and· satisfactory abstract (6v) of the title (7) of him the said (vendor) to the said premises. AND also on or before the day of upon receiving from the said (purchaser) the said sum of £ (8 v) to execute proper convey set aside by the interference of a Court of Equity. See Wiseman v. Beake, 2 Vern. 121. Twisleton v. Griffith, 1 P. Wms. 310. Cole v. Gibbons, 3 ib. 290. Sir J. Barnardiston v. Lingood, 2 Atk. 133. Moth v. Atwood, 5 Ves. 845. Morse v. Royal, 12 ib. 371. Peacock v. Evans, 16 ib. 517. Gowland v. De Faria, 17 ib. 24. which is contrary to the practice of the courts in other cases, see Bullock v. Sadler, Amb. 764. Coles v. Trecothick, 9 Ves. 246. Burrows v. Lock, 10 ib. 471. and ante, p. 22, n. (5). (5) If the consideration be a transfer of money in the funds, see ante, No. II. p. 21, n. (5). If it be an annuity payable to the vendor during his life, see ibid. (6) If the purchaser is to take subject to all casual defects of title, see ante, No. II. p. 24, n. (7). (7) This title must be deduced from the time of the creation of the reversionary interest, at however remote a period that of the reversion. may have been, for until the determination of the prior or particular estate, the possession of any wrongful owner would not be adverse to the reversioner's title, and consequently the statute of limitations will not begin to run until the expiration of that period, and where the reversion is expectant upon a term of years the possession of the termor is in many cases deemed the possession of the reversioner, and hence such possession, however long it may have continued, if not adverse to the title of the rightful owner, is no bar to him. Transfer of stock. (8) If the consideration be a transfer of money in the funds, see ante, No. II. p. 24, n. (8). |