VENDOR AND PURCHASER. The law of vendors and pur chasers of real estate in England is a subject of great extent, which may be said to comprise nearly the whole practical application of the law of real property.
Contracts for the sale and purchase of land or other real estate may be entered into either privately between the parties, or upon a sale by auction. At common law, agreements for the purchase of real estatea might be made by parol, but by the Statute of Fmuda (29 Car. 11. c. 3, as. 1, 2, 3, and 4), "All leases, estates, interests of freeholds, or terms of years, or any uncertain interest of, in, or out of any messu ages, manors, lands, tenements, or hereditamenta, made and created by livery and seisin only, or by parol only, and not put in writing by the parties so making or creating the same, or their agents thereunto law fully authorised by writing, shall have the effect of leases or estates at will, any consideration for making any such parol leases or estate? not withstanding." But leases not exceeding three years, whereupon the rent reserved should amount to two-thirds of the full improved value, are excepted. The act requires the assignment, grant, and surrender of existing interests to be in writing, and enacts that "no action shall be brought whereby to charge any person upon any agreement made upon any contract or sale of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any interest in or concerning them, unless the agreement upon which such action shall be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof shall be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or some other person thereunto by him lawfully authorised." The
note or memorandum of agreement required by the statute need not be a formal document, and any writing, such as a letter, or receipt for purchase-money, may constitute an agreement within the statute, pro vided it contain the terms of the agreement within itself, or by reference to another writing; and if the document be written by the party, the occurrence of his name anywhere in the document is a sufficient signing.
Upon sales of estates by public auction, the highest bidder, upon being declared the purchaser, is considered to have entered Into a oon tract for purchase according to the particulars and subject to the conditions of sale; and the auctioneer, who is for this purpose con sidered as the agent of both vendor and purchaser, is thereupon authorised to sign an agreement of purchase. The writing down the purchaser's name upon any memorandum of sale at the time of the bidding is a sufficient signing. Sales by suction of lands are within the above-mentioned enactments of the Statute of Frauds ; but sales before a master under a decree of a court of equity will be carried into execution although the purchaser did not aubseribe any agree ment, for the judgment of the court in confirming the purchase takes it out of the statute. The aubject of the sale and purchase of estates is discussed at length in Sugden's (now Lord St. Leonardo and Dart's ' Treatisea on the Law of Vendors and Purchasers of Estates.'