Langston v. Bates

• Decision Date: 31 January 1877
• Citation: 84 Ill. 524,25 Am.Rep. 466,1877 WL 9426
• Parties: JOSEPH D. LANGSTONv.ASAPH J. BATES et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

84 Ill. 524

1877 WL 9426 (Ill.)

25 Am.Rep. 466

JOSEPH D. LANGSTON

v.ASAPH J. BATES et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

January Term, 1877.

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Menard county; the Hon. LYMAN LACEY, Judge, presiding.

Mr. T. W. MCNEELY, for the appellants.

Mr. E. LANNING, and Mr. N. W. BRANSON, for the appellees.

Mr. JUSTICE CRAIG delivered the opinion of the Court:

This was a bill in equity, brought by Asaph J. Bates and his children, heirs at law of Emily Bates, deceased, to enforce the specific performance of a parol contract made by Joseph D. Langston, in 1857, to convey a certain tract of land, consisting of forty acres, in Menard county, to Asaph J. Bates and his wife, Emily. The bill also set up a subsequent agreement made between the parties, under which the complainants claimed to be entitled to a deed for another forty acre tract, adjoining the one in question on the east. On the hearing, the court decreed against the complainants as to the last tract named, and as no cross-errors have been assigned, it will not be necessary to consider this branch of the case. As to the other tract of land, the court, upon the hearing, decreed in favor of complainants, and the decree is claimed by the defendant in the bill not to be warranted under the pleadings and evidence.

The law seems to be well settled that a parol contract to sell land may be enforced in equity, where the vendee has taken possession under the contract and made lasting and valuable improvements, and paid the purchase money. So, too, a promise or agreement made by a father to a child, to convey a tract of land if the child will take possession of and improve the same, when followed by possession, and the expenditure of labor and money in making lasting and valuable improvements, may be regarded as resting upon a valuable consideration, and will be upheld and enforced in a court of equity. Bright v. Bright, 41 Ill. 97; Kurtz v. Hibner, 55 Ill. 514; Wood v. Thornly, 58 Ill. 464.

But in order to take a case out of the operation of the Statute of Frauds, the authorities all agree that a contract to convey should be clear and certain in its terms, and established by testimony of an undoubted character, which is clear, definite and unequivocal. The reason for this is plain. As is well said by Story, vol. 2, sec. 764: “A court of equity ought not to act upon conjectures, and one of the most important objects of the statute was to prevent the introduction of loose and indeterminate proofs of what ought to be established by solemn, written contracts.”

The question to be determined, then, is, whether appellees have established, by the evidence, a state of facts which, under the rules indicated, would authorize the decree rendered in their favor. At the time the arrangement was entered into between Bates and appellant, the land in question was vacant and unimproved. In 1857, Bates erected a house upon the land, and moved upon it with his family, and has remained in the possession thereof ever since, occupying as owner, and it is clearly proven that he has made valuable and lasting improvements upon the premises. Bates, in his evidence, says, appellant agreed, if he would go upon the land and improve it, he would give it to him and his wife, Emily; that he accepted the proposition, and went upon and improved the property. Shepherd, a witness for the complainants, who was present when the arrangement was said to have been made, testified that he heard appellant say to Bates, if he would sell out where he then resided, and improve the forty acre tract, he might have it. Washbend testifies, that, in 1857, appellant told him he had pursuaded Bates to sell his own land, and take his money and build on the land in dispute, so that Bates' wife could be close home, and that he had given the land to Bates and his wife. Berryhill, in his evidence, stated, that, in 1857, he heard appellant say he had given the land to Bates and his wife in order to have his daughter near him. A large number of other witnesses testified to conversations had with appellant, on different occasions, in which he admitted he had given...