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Deeds - Exceptions And Reservations - Use Of Extrinsic Evidence To Interpret Uncertain Exceptions - Exception To Grant Described In Document To Be Drawn, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In anticipation of becoming the owner of a tract of land, S agreed to convey to a water company that portion of the land which the company would require for its reservoir. On acquiring the land, S conveyed the tract to F "except about 25/100 acres on the westerly side to be deeded to the Centralia Water Works Co." Ten days later, S conveyed to the water company "all that part . . . that is now or shall hereafter be, covered by water in the reservoir of said . . . company to high water mark in flood time …

Landlord And Tenant - Necessity For Consideration For Lease, James A. Lee

Michigan Law Review

In an action to cancel a five-year lease, it appeared that the lessee had agreed to pay as rent an amount equal to one cent a gallon on each gallon of gasoline delivered, by it, on the leased premises. Held, that the lease was valid, as it created a bilateral contract supported by consideration on both sides, since according to the court's construction of the lease the lessee had impliedly promised to use the premises as an automobile filling and service station for the stipulated period and so would necessarily be required to deliver gasoline there. Jackson v. Pepper …

Deeds - Construction Where Grantees Take "Jointly'', Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Land was conveyed to plaintiffs' ancestor and defendant by deed. The granting clause read: "hereby convey to Isaac . . . and Alice . . . "; the habendum clause: "Said real estate being taken by said grantees jointly . . . to have and to hold . . . to the said grantees, their assigns, heirs, and devisees forever." The heirs of Isaac, who died intestate, filed a partition petition; Alice, claiming as surviving joint tenant, answered and also started an action to quiet title. A statute provided that "Conveyances to two or more in their own right create …

Trusts - Right Of Trustee's Wife To Dower In Property Held Subject To Oral Trust - Effect Of Subsequent Memorandum - Dower Where Trustee Has Both Legal And Equitable Interest, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to an oral agreement and upon consideration furnished by them, A, B, and C procured land to be conveyed to A by a third party. Six days later A executed a self declaration of trust in the terms of the oral agreement; that he would operate it, and within a specified period sell the property and divide the proceeds between himself, B and C, as beneficiaries. A suit to remove A as trustee culminated in a judicial sale of the property to B and C. In this proceeding by B and C to quiet title, A …

Adverse Possession - Severance Of Minerals And Surface - Adverse Possession As Affecting Title To The Minerals, John M. Ulman

Michigan Law Review

The land in question was set aside by the state for school purposes. For some time prior to 1881 one Bailey had been in possession. At that time he and his children, to whom he had deeded parts of the land, conveyed the mineral interests to a grantee from whom plaintiff claims. At the time of the conveyance the evidence was insufficient to show title by adverse possession in Bailey. Bailey and his grantees, from whom defendant claims, remained in possession until this action was brought. The limitation ceased running against the state by an act of the legislature at …

Vendor And Purchaser - Right Of Vendor's Assignee To Specific Performance Where Contract Calls For Warranty Deed, Daniel Hodgman

Michigan Law Review

Vendor, a corporation, contracted to convey real estate to the vendee "by good and sufficient warranty deed, free of all incumbrances" upon payment of the purchase price by the vendee. The vendor assigned the contract to X as trustee and then went into receivership and liquidation. A new corporation was organized and the real estate subject to the contract was conveyed to it by the old corporation (vendor). The contract was then assigned to the new corporation by X, the trustee. The vendee being in default, the new corporation as assignee of the vendor sued the vendee for specific …

Purchaser's Remedies For Absence Of Marketable Title, Lawrence Linville

Michigan Law Review

"Where a person takes upon himself to contract for the sale of an estate, and is not the absolute owner of it, nor has it in his power by the ordinary course of law or equity to make himself so; though the owner offer to make the seller a title, yet equity will not force the buyer to take it, for every seller ought to be a bona fide contractor: and it would lead to infinite mischief if one man were permitted to speculate upon the sale of another's estate."

The apprehensions of Sugden were not groundless, as three quarters …

Principal And Agent - Liability Of Agent To Third Party For Contract Made Without Authority, Walter Probst Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The defendant conducted a real estate agency and had been requested from time to time to find a purchaser for a certain tract of land. The defendant negotiated to sell this land to the plaintiffs, who knew the defendant was acting as an agent. The land had before the time of this negotiation been conveyed to a third party by the principal. It was found that the defendant was acting in good faith. Held, that the defendant was not personally liable for the loss and damage sustained by the plaintiffs. King v. Russell, 278 Mich. 529, 270 N. …

Specific Performance--Damages--Action At Law By Vendor Of Land For The Full Purchase Price

Michigan Law Review

In an action at law by a vendor of land for breach of contract by the purchaser, the title not having passed, the traditional measure of damages is the difference between the contract price and the value of the land at the time the vendor's conveyance was due. But where a conveyance is not yet due from the vendor a majority of jurisdictions allow recovery of all but the last installment of the purchase money, on the ground that in that case the promise to pay is independent of the vendor's promise to convey. Even where a conveyance is due …

Equity - Rescission Of Contract Induced By Fraud - Money Judgment As An Alternative To Specific Restitution

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff entered into an agreement for the exchange of interests in real estate with one of the defendants. After payment of part of the boot money agreed upon, the plaintiff defaulted and sued to have the agreement rescinded for fraud. The trial court rendered a money judgment for the amount at which the plaintiff's property had been taken on the trade. Held, that defendant's wife, to whom the property had been conveyed, should have been joined, and that the decree should be modified to order a reconveyance to the plaintiff. Bacon v. Fox, 267 Mich. 589, 255 N. …

Recording - Operation Of The Recording Acts On Quitclaim Deeds

Michigan Law Review

A conveyed two specific lots in Harris County to B. Before that deed was recorded, and while the lots were still vacant, A conveyed several specific tracts of land to C and added a blanket clause of "all other lands and interest in lands belonging to A in Harris County"; C made a like conveyance to D; D conveyed the two specific lots in question to E by warranty deed; E conveyed the two lots to plaintiff by warranty deed sixteen years after the deed to C. All the deeds in the second chain of title were …

Vendor And Purchaser - Mortgaging Of Land By Vendor - Effect On Vendee's Duty To Continue Installment Payments

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiffs agreed in writing to purchase a tract of land from the defendant, the purchase price to be paid in stated installments or in full at any time at the option of the plaintiffs. Two days after the formation of the contract the defendant mortgaged the land, and about eight months later placed a second mortgage on it. Plaintiffs denied having any knowledge of the mortgages until attempts were made to foreclose them. Previous to this, however, they had defaulted in their payments. In an action in general assumpsit to recover the amount of the installments paid it was held …

Future Interests -Transferability Of Right Of Entry For Breach Of Condition

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff's ancestor conveyed land to the city, on the express condition that the city should construct and forever maintain a "speedway" on the premises conveyed, reserving to himself, his heirs and assigns a right of entry for breach of the condition. Subsequently, before the condition was broken, he conveyed to a third party all his remaining land adjoining the Speedway, "together with all the right, title and interest of the party of the first part, in said Speedway." The breach of the condition having since admittedly occurred, the plaintiff, the heir of the original grantor, sought to assert the right …

Vendor -Purchaser-Prospective Inability Of Vendor To Convey

Michigan Law Review

In a contract for the sale of sixty-three lots of a subdivision, the defendant agreed to take the purchase money by installments extending over a period of eighteen months, and promised to convey the premises free from encumbrances when twenty-five per cent of the sale price was paid. While the plaintiff was not in default the defendant mortgaged the entire subdivision to one who was not charged with notice, to secure the payment of bonds some of which did not mature for five years. Stipulations m the mortgage allowed the release of any lot on deposit with the mortgagee of …

Non-Assignment Provisions In Land Contracts, Edwin C. Goddard

Michigan Law Review

Many a sale of real estate is made to a purchaser who lacks the ready cash to pay the price. A deed of conveyance may be given with a mortgage back for the unpaid portion of the purchase price. But more and more in recent years the vendor has given a contract to convey conditioned upon the making of periodical payments of stipulated amounts, a deed to be given when the whole or a stated portion of the purchase price has been paid. The initial payment may be very small, and not infrequently the periodic payments are little more than …

A Law Book By An Engineer

Michigan Law Review

A review of THE LEGAL ELEMENTS OF BOUNDARIES AND ADJACENT PROPERTIES. By Ray Hamilton Skelton, C.E.

Easements-Way Of Necessity-Sale Of Servent Estate To Bona Fide Purchaser Without Notice

Michigan Law Review

M conveyed a portion of his land to X, through whom the defendant claims, the circumstances being such that X acquired a way of necessity over the land retained by M. X recorded his deed. Later M conveyed his remaining land to H, through whom the plaintiff claims. H was a purchaser for value without notice of the way of necessity. The plaintiff sought to enjoin the defendant from entering his land, and the defendant attempted to justify on the ground of this way of necessity. Held, under the recording acts the plaintiff as a bona fide purchaser took …

Trusts-Right Of Trustee To Purchase Trust Property

Michigan Law Review

The trustees under a will filed a petition in the district court asking for an order of court authorizing them to sell and convey to two of the trustees a portion of the real estate held by them in trust, and for authority to sell and convey the remainder of the real estate to the husband of one of the trustees. Three of the beneficiaries were not sui juris, and the remaining beneficiaries refused to give their consent. Held, that a trustee can not purchase trust property from himself when the beneficiary is not sui juris or when …

Estates-Tenancy By Entireties--Ability Of Judgment Creditor To Reach Tenant's Interest

Michigan Law Review

Shortly after the plaintiff's judgment had been docketted and a fruitless attempt made to have it satisfied, the defendant and his wife became devisees of some land, holding it as tenants by entireties. Knowing his wife to be in poor health and fearing he might survive her, the defendant persuaded her to join in a conveyance to their granddaughter for only a nominal consideration. Both women were unaware of the defendant's real motive, but the defendant himself understood the effect of what he was doing and was anxious to place the land beyond the plaintiff's reach. Held, that the …

Contracts--Risk Of Loss Under Executory Land Contract--Disposition Of Insurance Process.

Michigan Law Review

When buildings, which are part of the subject matter of an executory contract for the sale of land, are accidentally destroyed by fire, there immediately arises the question of who, as between the vendor and the purchase, shall bear the loss. The majority of courts in this country place it on the purchaser. This was the result reached in the leading English case of Paine v. Meller and has been adopted in the following states: California, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and West Virginia. …

Deeds-Side Of Lake As Boundary-Presumption That Grantee Takes To Center

Michigan Law Review

ln a conveyance of land adjoining a lake, the description read in part, "thence running northerly * * * to the Rockland Lake thence westwardly along the south side of the Rockland Lake." Held, that the grantee took to the center of the lake. White v. Knickerbocker Ice Co. et al. (N. Y. 1930) 172 N.E. 452.

Conflict Of Laws Treatment Of Interpretation And Construction Of Deeds In Reference To Covenants, Raymond J. Hellman

Michigan Law Review

It is submitted that the terms "interpretation" and "construction" and the verbs "interpret" and "construe" should be used with distinct significations. There are two types of problems with reference to which these terms are used, often ambiguously and unclearly. In one type of problem a question is presented and sought to be answered as to what someone actually or apparently intended. There is an effort to reach a result which was actually desired even though the data tending to show this may be of limited utility. In the other type of problem it is recognized or realized either that there …

Book Reviews, Edwin C. Goddard, Evans Holbrook, Ralph W. Aigler, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

Books in general, law books in particular, are like people. Most of them are ordinary, some useful, some not, but if they had not appeared they would not have been greatly missed, having appeared they will live their few years and at least seem to be forgotten. A few are so outstanding that they make a strong impress on their time and live on beyond the period of a life. If not great they have great influence and make notable contributions. Among the notable books of our time in the field of property law may be mentioned Jarman on Wills …

Delivery And Acceptance Of Deeds, Herbert T. Tiffany

Michigan Law Review

It is proposed, in the first part of this paper, to consider the nature of the delivery of a deed, more particularly a deed of conveyance, and the facts and circumstances which the courts have regarded as justifying an inference of delivery. The second part of the paper will be devoted to a consideration of the necessity of the acceptance of a deed, in addition to delivery, in order that it may have a legal operation.