Riggs v. Magruder
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of District of Columbia
The defendant agreed to receive of the plaintiff $5000 of the notes of the Merchants Bank, (a private bank) if delivered in twenty days, and pay him for them $4,900, in good current notes of the district banks. Each was to forfeit $500 if he refused to comply; the agreement was to be reduced to writing, and signed the next day at the plaintiff’s counting-room. The defendant refused to sign it the next day, or to carry it into effect.
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The defendant agreed to receive of the plaintiff $5000 of the notes of the Merchants Bank, (a private bank) if delivered in twenty days, and pay him for them $4,900, in good current notes of the district banks. Each was to forfeit $500 if he refused to comply; the agreement was to be reduced to writing, and signed the next day at the plaintiff’s counting-room. The defendant refused to sign it the next day, or to carry it into effect. The plaintiff tendered the notes within the twenty days, apd the defendant refused to receive them. contended that stocks were merchandise, and a fortiori the…
1Opinion of the Court
The Court (Thruston, J., absent,)
decided, that the agreement was void by the 17th section' of the statute of frauds ; and that if the jury should be of opinion from the evidence, that it was agreed between the parties that the oral contract should be reduced to writing the next day, and signed by the parties, and that it was not so reduced and signed, the contract was never complete.
2Cited by1 opinion
- Ex parte BlumerTexas Supreme Court · 1865