Cousineau v. Walker

In 1975, The Appellees, Devon Walker and his wife (the "Appellees"), purchased a certain parcel of land in Alaska for $140,000. In October 1976, the Appellees attempted to sell the land and in their multiple listing agreement said the property included "580 feet of highway frontage" and based on an engineers report possessed "OVER 1 MILLION IN GRAVEL ON PROP." The Appellees asking price was $245,000. The initial multiple listing agreement expired, and the Appellees signed a new agreement. In the agreement the property was again described as containing "580 feet of highway frontage." However, the gravel content was set at a "minimum 80,000 cubic yds of gravel." The new asking price in the second agreement was $470,000. On December 31, 1976 an appraisal was conducted, but the appraisal value did not take into account the value of the gravel. The appraisal report, however, did mention the ground was "all good gravel base." The Appellant, Wayne Cousineau (the "Appellant"), after seeing the second listing, offered $360,000 for the property. The Appellant was in the gravel extraction business so he wanted all gravel rights transferred to him. In February of 1977, Mr. Cousineau agreed to pay $385,000 for the property. The Appellee's security interest in the property was protected by limiting the amount of gravel the Appellant initially could remove. The Appellant and his business partners shortly after the closing began developing the commercial portion of the property. In doing so they purchased a $12,000 gravel scale. Shortly thereafter, they learned that the actual highway frontage was 415 feet, not 580 feet. Simultaneously, after removing only 6,000 yards of gravel, the gravel supply on the property ran out. In December of 1977 the Appellant and his partners stopped paying for the property. At that time they had paid $99,000. The Appellant brought suit for rescission and restitution. The trial court found that the Appellant did not rely on any misrepresentations and ruled for the Appellees.