Section 4.20 Real Estate Contracts

• Library: Contracts 2016 Supp

4. (§4.20) Real Estate Contracts

Using the English measure of damages, which is followed in about one-half of the jurisdictions in the United States, in an action by a vendee against a vendor on a realty contract in which the vendor is unable to convey good title to the property, the measure of damages is the amount of money paid by the vendee under the contract. Flureau v. Thornhill, 2 Wm. Bl. 1078 (1776). Missouri does not follow this doctrine, but rather applies the traditional measure of contract damages, the difference between the contract price and the market value. Hartzell v. Crumb, 3 S.W. 59 (Mo. 1887). All courts agree that, in an action by the vendor against the...