Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XX.





NEW YOEK, SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1877.





No. 488.





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
one: YBAR. hi advance....SlO.OO.
Communications should be addresse d to

C. MV. SWKET,

Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway.





LEGAL DECISIONS.
In October, 1873, the parties entered into a con¬
tract by which plaintiff agreed to seU certain
premises in New York City to defendant, and to
convey in October, 1874, by warranty deed, with
full covenants. Defendant, upon deUvery of
said deed, agreed to pay the purchase price. The
premises in question were conveyed to plamtiff by
one Dietz by deed dated May 1, 1872. Dietz was
at that time the owner in fee of the premises; he
was a married man; his wife did not join in the
deed, and is still Uving, and has executed no
release or conveyance of her inchoate right of
dower. In March, 1873, Dietz commenced an
action against his wife for divorce, on the ground
of adiUtery. She appeared and answered, setting
up counter allegations of adultery on the part of
her husband. The referee found that neither
party was entitled to a divorce, the charges
made on both sides being ti-ue. The plaintiff
having tendered to defendant a full warranty
'deed signed by himself only, claiming that his
wife was not entitled to dower on the ground that
she was guilty of adultery, although no judgment
of divorce was granted. The defendant refused
to accept the deed without her signature, and
claimed that her adultery did not work a forfeit¬
ure of dower, it not having been foUowed by a
decree of divorce a vinculo. The Court held that
though the wif e was declared, by the finding of
fact of the referee, to have committed adultery,
yet never adjudged therefor to be divorced from
her husband, she is stiU his wife, and entitled to
dower in his lands, if she survives him. This pos-
sibiUty of dower affected the title tendered by
plaintiff, and the defendant was not bound to
accept the same. Although the Revised Statutes
declare, that in cases of divorce dissolving the
marriage contract for the misconduct of the wife
she shall not be endowed, the true iaterpretation
of the statute is a judgment for divorce dissolving
the marriage contract.





One Briggs entered into an agreement, in
writing, under seal, with one L. P. Hurlburd,
who was acting for, and under the authority of,
one T. M. Partridge, "whereby Briggs sold,
and the said Partridge, through said Hurlburd,
bought" a certain described piece of land " for
the sum of $7,200, which said sum the said Part¬
ridge, through his said agent (the said Hurlburd),
agreed to pay" as specified. The deed was to be
deUvered on February 1, 1874, and the said Part¬
ridge, through said Hurlburd, paid, on the deUv¬
ery of the contract, $100. On the first day of
February, 1874, the said Briggs was ready to de¬
liver the deed, but Partridge faUed to fulfil the
agreement or to take title to the property. In an
action brought against Partridge to cppipel per¬
formance of the agreement, the coinplamt was
dismissed, the Judge holding that Partridge was
not a party to the agreement; that he did not
sign it himself; that his name does not appear in it;
that the covenants in such agreement are solely
between Briggs ahd Hurlburd. The agreement
was under seal,'and Hm-lburd was, in fact, act¬
ing in the transaction as the agent of Partridge,
under an oral authority. The question comes up in
this case, Can ih© yendor ia a sealed agreement





for the sale of land enforce it as the simple con¬
tract of a person not mentioned in the instru¬
ment, on proof that the vendee named therein,
and who signed and sealed it as his contract, had.
oral authority from such third person to enter
into the contract of purchase and acted as his
agent in the transaction. The Judge claims that
no authority for this proposition can be cited,
holding that there is a distinction between sealed
and unsealed contracts. If the contract had not
been sealed, and proof had been made that Hurl¬
burd had oral authority from Partridge to make
the contract, as unquestionably was the case,
then Partridge would have been bound by the
contract. In regard to unsealed contracts, the
doctrine is now fuUy established that a principal
may be charged upon a written parol executory
contract, not under seal, entered into by an agent
in his own name, within his authority, although
the name of the principal does not appear in the
instrument, and was not disclosed, and the party
dealing with the agent supposed that he was act¬
ing for himself, and this doctriue obtains as weU
in respect to contracts which are required to be
in writing, as to those where a writing is not es¬
sential to their vaUdity.





MARKET   REVIEW.





THE LUMBER TRADE OF NEW YORK
Last week we referred to the want of system shown
in the management of the lumber trade of this city,
and printed therewith some suggestions from a cor¬
respondent regarding means deemed judicious to
place the arrivals in shape for selling. From other
sources the same views have come to us, and we can
see no reason why our wholesale lumber dealers, and,
if needs be, the retailers, too, cannot associate them¬
selves together for mutual benefit and protection.
Every leading article of merchandise, except lumber,
in the city has something in the way of a Board of
Trade, &c., either as a separate institution or as a par¬
cel of some larger exchange, and we suggest again to
our merchants dealing in the product of the forest
that they take steps to procure an exchange of views
upon the propriety of forming such a body. Some
reform is needed most positively in the manner of
seUing cargoes, as any one who has made the attempt
can testify, and every market reporter's experience
shows remarkable and wide variations in views as to
prices.

The custom is now, on arrival, to canvass the trade
from all dealers within a circuit of ten or a dozen
miles, to find a buyer in need of the particular kinds
of lumber, then get the best offer, and finally dis¬
pose of the cargo to the highest bidder. The con¬
sequence is, that while this. is going on, the cargo
Ues afloat for weeks, with constantly increasing
expenses of demurrage, dockage, support of crew,
&c., untU at last it is sold, being frequently at a loss
to the shipper, and at no quotable market rate.

To overcome this, in a measure, it is proposed that
sales at auction be held on a plan umUarto that in
vogue at the ports of Great Britain. If properly car¬
ried out these sales could be so amended as to reach
the eye of the entire trade, and those in want of any
particular offering b6 thus enabled to see their way to
stock without becoming subject to the crowding that
must ensue did the seUer discover their wants, whUe
at the same time the competition must protect re¬
ceivers to the full extent of the current value of car¬
goes at least. We know from personal experience
that but of any ten dealers two may possibly quote
close enough together to be caUed alike, but the bal¬
ance are almost sure to have eight different views of
the situation between them, and each individual wiU
insist that he, and only he, is the triie exponent of the
condition of the lumber market. An improvement on
this is sadly needed, and a system of public sales
seems as yet the most feeble plan proposed for giy^
ing t]^e lagrket rfgnlar oijad ^sitive shape.





REAL ESTATE MARKET.
The week closes without any notable incident.
Every transaction made at the Exchange Salesroom
was in pursuance of the order of the Court, and, with
two or three exceptions, the plaintiff in the action was
permitted to bid in the property offered for sale. Nu¬
merous adjournments were made, and on Tuesday
last no sales whatever took place, the entire Ust hav¬
ing been adjourned. The notable transfers of the
week are the foUowing: The four-story brick dwell¬
ing known as No. 104 West Fifty-seventh street, bet¬
ween Sixth and Seventh avenues, the consideration
for which is 538,000; and the four-story dwelUng on
the same street, known as 108, which was sold for
837,000. Mr. S. Bellman has caused to be recorded a
deed conve3nng a plot of land, comprising the front
of the block, on the west side of Madison avenue, ex¬
tending from Forty-fifth to Forty-sixth street, by 180
. feet in depth, for which it is reported he paid the
sum of $198,000. Fourteen four-story brown stone
front houses wUl be erected thereon.

The Commissioners of Taxes and Assessments, in
justification of the increase of $2,776,918 made for the
year 1877 on the assessed value of real estate in the
city of New York, over that for the year 1876, state
that such increased sum is far less than the value of
the new buildings completed or erected during the
year, and that the sum of increase which would have
represented the value of the new buildings, has been
diminished by the reductions made in the assessed
value of property in the unimproved portions of the
Twelfth, Nineteenth and Twenty-second wards. In
some sections of two of these wards—the Twelfth
and Twenty-second—the decline from the highest
prices has been equal to fifty or sixty per cent. So
great has been the decUne in this kind of property
that prices have sunk to, and even below, the assessed
valuations, and a revision and reduction were, there¬
fore, compeUed. In the lower sections of the same
ward many buildings have been constructed, so that
the Twenty-second ward shows a large increase in ag¬
gregate values. In the Nineteenth ward, building has
been exceedingly active, and this ward also exhibits
a considerable increase. With regard to west side
unimproved property, the Commissioners are of
opinion that its market value is extremely unsettled,
and that an investment-in such property, in order to
save a purchaser from loss, should double in value
every seven or eight years, leaving out of question
any UabiUty for assessments for pubUc improvements.
The problems, then, that present themselves to the
mind of the operator are something like these: What
is there in the present condition of business affairs
and of poUtical affairs—so far as they relate to the
financial condition of the country, touching the cur¬
rency and the tariff—which wUl warrant the assump¬
tion that the property offered wiU double in value
during the next seven years? WiU a successful
method of rapid transit produce the desired result?
WUl the increase in the population be such as to
bring the property into demand within the time
stated? Prices must, therefore, vary, according to
the judgment of buyers on these points, and also with
the measure of the necessities of the seUer and the
duty imposed on the Commissioners of placing values
upon such properties is most dififtcult.

Mr. Charles C. Colgate has purchased from Messrs.
Duggin & Crossman the house on the south-east cor¬
ner of Madison avenue and Fifty-fifth street, with lot
18x85, for $33,000 cash. The house is not yet even en¬
closed, but is to be finished and ready for occupancy
by December 1st. This sale shows a derriand, at profit¬
able figures to the buUders, from the wealthy class of
pur population, for strictly first cUss work, and it