Grafton v. Ball

Headnote

Grafton v. Ball, 164 App. Div. 70 , appeal dismissed.

Appeal from a judgment entered October 21, 1914, upon an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme ' Court in the second judicial department, which reversed an order of the court at a Trial Term setting aside a verdict in favor of plaintiff and granting a new trial and reinstated said verdict in an action to recover the agreed purchase price of certain parcels of real property theretofore conveyed by plaintiff to the defendant. The issue of fact between the parties is as to the understanding upon which this transfer was made. The plaintiff and the defendant had both been connected with the building of the houses upon these lots, the plaintiff as a practical builder and as owner of the lots and the defendant as the plaintiff’s attorney and also as a financial backer of the development. The plaintiff testified that the defendant induced him to make this transfer by representing that if he had the property he could more readily effect a sale which would enable him to get hack the money he had advanced upon the property, and by promising, both orally and in a written contract, that, upon effecting a sale, he would pay to the plaintiff for plaintiff’s share in the property the sum of $7,000. The

defendant denied the making of such , a contract and claimed that the plaintiff had no beneficial interest in the property during the period when he held the title and that he only held it- in order that he might receive the “ credit ” of having carried the building operation through successfully.