Dinsmore v. Bridgeville Lumber Co.

VAN DYKE, P. J. Plaintiffs and appellants brought this action against defendant and respondent to obtain specific enforcement of a contract to convey real property and incidental relief. Prior to April 20, 1946, appellants were the owners of 680 acres of timber land in Humboldt County. On that day a contract was entered into with respondent, where-under they agreed to sell the land to respondent for the sum of $7,000 and to convey when the purchase price had been paid. On the 7th of May following another contract was [209]entered into by the parties. This is the contract which the appellants herein seek to have specifically enforced. Stated in substance, that contract was as follows: In consideration of one dollar the respondent agreed to convey to appellants, by quitclaim deed, “at any time after the 7th day of May, 1951 and before the 7th day of May, 1952, ’ ’ for a payment of $100, the same property which respondent was then purchasing under contract from appellants. The parties refer to this document as an option and we will so refer to it. The writing contains no explanation on its face as to why property costing $7,000 and being currently purchased at that price from appellants might thus be conveyed back to them for $100 some five or six years later. The parties proceeded under the purchase and sale agreement. Respondent paid for the land and received a grant deed therefor from appellants, which deed was absolute in form and contained no reference to the outstanding option contract.

By their complaint the plaintiffs alleged the execution of the foregoing agreements and the execution of the deed to respondent. In an apparent attempt to explain the whole transaction, appellants alleged that, as owners of the subject property, they first entered into an oral contract with respondent wherein it was agreed that they would sell the property to respondent, give it a period of five years to remove the timber therefrom and that after the five-year period all rights of respondent in and to the property and timber would revert to appellants; that to carry out the terms of that oral contract the parties executed the purchase and sale agreement whereunder respondent was to obtain title to the property and the later option agreement whereunder appellants for the sum of $100 could repurchase the subject land. They alleged the fairness of the repurchase agreement under the circumstances, and that in all respects it was fairly arrived at.

On June 1, 1951, appellants recorded the option agreement, tendered to respondent $100 in money and demanded a deed. Later they began this action. They alleged respondent’s refusal to convey; that on January 11, 1949, respondent had made an agreement with one Thomsen, selling the timber on the land to him, with the right to enter and remove the same for a period extending to March 1, 1952; that Thomsen had begun to remove the timber and was at the time the action was filed still cutting and removing the same and making payments therefor to respondent; that as of June 1, 1951, there was still