HRPT Properties Trust v. Cordova

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

This case involves a real estate transaction gone awry. Buyer HRPT Properties Trust sued sellers Rancho Cordova, L.C., and MLC Properties, L.C., for recovery of a $700,000 deposit that HRPT paid toward the purchase price of a six-acre parcel of land in Sacramento County, California. HRPT claimed that it was entitled to a return of the deposit because the defendant sellers defaulted on the agreement of sale. The district court granted summary judgment for the plaintiff, ruling that the sellers defaulted by failing to fulfill a material condition precedent of the agreement…