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Ozra (PM)     16 May 2010

Specific Performance limitations (property sale)

Greetings to all the members. I was delighted to find this forum, and look forward to being actively involved.

I have a question regarding a civil suit that a former business partner has filed against us.

Facts:
1) An agreement of sale was made to sell an undeveloped property by us (defendant) to the business partner (plaintiff). The agreement clearly spells out the amount of consideration for the property, and sets a time limit of 3 months that the plaintiff has to pay the money after the defendant has handed over the possession of the property.

2) The possession was handed over via a letter. The plaintiff never paid any money even after two years and was sent a letter by the defendant notifying him that the original agreement is now null and void.

3) This was in the late eighties. Now the plaintiff has filed suit after more than 20 years, requesting specific performance of the original agreement. He claims that the money was "adjusted" during the partnership, when (a) there was no scope for adjustment mentioned in the original agreement, and (b) there
was no mention of such adjustment when the partnership was dissolved, and all the assets and liabilities of the firm were taken on by us, the sole remaining proprietor of the firm.

I wanted to see if any of you could shed some light on the strength of this case. In my mind, the Limitation Act 1963 itself voids the specific perfomance claim of the plaintiff since many more than 3 years have passed since the original agreement.

Thanks in advance.
 



Learning

 4 Replies

adv. rajeev ( rajoo ) (practicing advocate)     16 May 2010

Suit is not maintainable because to file a suit for specific performance limitatin is 3 years.

adv. rajeev ( rajoo ) (practicing advocate)     16 May 2010

It is time barred suit.

Kiran Kumar (Lawyer)     16 May 2010

if the facts stated by you are to be believed then you are comfortably place in the case, the suit is barred by limitation.

 

let the court frame the question of limitation as preliminary issue (if the stage has come).  law of limitation invites strict interpretation, the suit can be dismissed on this ground itself without proceeding further.

Ozra (PM)     16 May 2010

Thanks for the replies !! This makes me much more comfortable now, as we are about to develop the land, and we are being delayed by this suit. We will be maintaining status quo on the land until the result, but i hope it doesn't stretch into years and years.


Thanks again.


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