Thomas B. Hartley Construction Co. v. Liberty Life Insurance

Banke, Presiding Judge.

The appellant corporation sued to recover a $37,000 earnest money payment it had made to the appellee contemporaneously with the execution of a real estate sale contract. The appellee had declined to return any portion of the payment (which represented approximately 10 percent of the $373,500 sale price specified in the contract) in reliance upon the following contractual provision: “In the event buyer elects not to close this contract on or before the specified closing date, then in such event the earnest money will be forfeited as full liquidated damages to seller.”…