Warner v. Wilkey

The defendants appeal from a final decree on a bill for specific performance of a contract for the sale of land. The plaintiff was awarded damages in lieu of specific performance, the land having been sold to another after the bill was filed. See McCormick v. Proprietors of the Cemetery of Mount Auburn, 285 Mass. 548, 552-553 (1934), and cases cited. The Federal estate tax lien imposed on the land when the plaintiff became its surviving joint tenant was not an encumbrance preventing his conveying “a good clear record and marketable title, free from all encumbrances” as required by the…