Land was to be sold in stages to the purchaser.
Held: Specific performance, with or without compensation, would be ordered at the suit of a purchaser wherever possible, so long as he was able and willing to complete. Farwell J said : ‘There are no doubt cases where there has been a failure to pay the instalments and to complete the contract, and the purchaser has then come forward and said: ‘I am here and now ready and willing to complete the contract and to pay the price originally stipulated by the contract and to carry out its terms,’ and then the Court has said that it is inequitable and against conscience that the vendor should refuse specific performance and claim to retain the money already paid. That is because the Court has said that if the plaintiff is willing to carry out his contract, notwithstanding the fact that temporarily at any rate he was unable to do so, if he is willing and able to carry out his contract, it being the primary intention of the parties that the sale should take place, it would be against conscience for the defendant to say: ‘I will not give effect to the primary intention of the parties, but I will refuse to complete, and I will retain the money which has been paid to me.”
Judges:
Farwell J
Citations:
[1938] Ch 253
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Considered – Stockloser v Johnson CA 1954
Romer LJ said that, in the absence of pressure or duress, or other vitiating elements, there was no jurisdiction to provide for relief against forfeiture in the event of the purchaser’s default in contracts other than those relating to land.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land, Contract
Updated: 09 June 2022; Ref: scu.517568