White v. James Robertson Mfg. Co.

Decision Date11 November 1936
Docket Number2.
Citation187 A. 831,170 Md. 691
PartiesWHITE v. JAMES ROBERTSON MFG. CO. ET AL.
CourtMaryland Court of Appeals

Appeal from Circuit Court, Harford County; Walter W. Preston, Judge.

Suit by John A. White against James Robertson Manufacturing Company and others. From an order sustaining a demurrer to the bill of complaint and dismissing the bill, the plaintiff appeals.

Order reversed, and cause remanded.

Argued before BOND, C.J., and URNER, OFFUTT, PARKE, SLOAN, MITCHELL SHEHAN, and JOHNSON, JJ.

Ernest Volkart, of Baltimore (Michael W. Fahey, of Bel Air, on the brief), for appellant.

Lawrence W. Hecht, of Baltimore (Frederick Lee Cobourn, of Bel Air, on the brief), for appellees.

URNER Judge.

The appellant, on March 28, 1935, purchased from the Hotel Bayou Company all of its real and personal property at Havre de Grace, Md., for the sum of $65,000. The written agreement of purchase provided that $5,000 of the stipulated price should be deposited with the Maryland Title & Guaranty Company pending conveyance of the property, and the balance within 45 days. The purchase price having been paid in full, the property was conveyed to the purchaser by deed dated April 29th, and duly recorded on May 8, 1935. After the payment of the whole consideration, but before the execution of the deed conveying the title, five creditors of the vendor obtained judgments on their claims. In order to restrain the creditors from efforts to enforce their judgments by execution against the property acquired under the contract and deed, the purchaser and grantee brought this suit in equity. The appeal is from an order by which a demurrer to the amended bill of complaint was sustained and the bill dismissed.

It is not disputed by the appellees that ordinarily a judgment recovered against a vendor of property after the execution of a valid contract for its sale will not affect the vendee's right to complete the transaction and receive an effective conveyance of the title. That principle was reaffirmed, and earlier cases applying it were cited, in Caltrider v. Caples, 160 Md. 392, 153 A. 445, 87 A.L.R. 1500, and Colonial Building & Loan Ass'n v Boden, 169 Md. 493, 182 A. 665. But it is argued for the appellees that the present case is not within the rule applied by those decisions. The contention is that the bill of complaint does not show a right in the plaintiff to have his purchase consummated inasmuch as certain terms of the contract of sale, exhibited with the bill, are not alleged to have been performed.

It was provided by the contract that the vendor should furnish the vendee "promptly with a list of all outstanding indebtedness, secured or unsecured, now due and owing by the Hotel Bayou Company," and "to convey all real estate and to assign and transfer all personal property and assets free and clear from...

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