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Contracts Keyed to Fuller
Dills v. Town of Enfield
Citation:
557 A.2d 517, 210 Conn. 705 (1989)Facts
In 1974, Timothy E. Dills and the Enfield Development Agency entered into a contract for the sale of land to be developed as the Enfield Memorial Industrial Park. Dills paid a $100,000 deposit toward the contract price of $985,900. The contract required Dills to submit construction plans for approval and provide evidence of financial capacity before the agency would convey the property. The contract included termination provisions: section 702(b) allowed Dills to withdraw and reclaim his deposit if, after preparing acceptable construction plans, he could not obtain necessary mortgage financing; section 703(b) allowed the agency to terminate and retain the deposit as liquidated damages if Dills failed to submit acceptable construction plans.
Dills submitted “preliminary plans” that were initially rejected, then revised and accepted, but he never submitted the required full construction plans. The reason for this failure was his inability to obtain mortgage financing despite diligent efforts. In December 1974, the agency voted to terminate the agreement under section 703(b) and retain the deposit. Three days later, Dills attempted to terminate under section 702(b), claiming inability to obtain financing.
The referee found that although Dills never submitted construction plans, the preparation of such plans became a “useless act” due to the impossibility of obtaining financing, and therefore Dills’ duty was “discharged by supervening impracticability.” The trial court rejected this conclusion, finding that the contract provisions were bargained for and the doctrine of impracticability did not apply in this case.
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