Sutter

Plaintiffs and defendants, respectively, appeal from parts of a judgment in an action for specific performance. Defendants also appeal from an order denying their motion to- set aside the judgment pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 663.

In March 1965 Lachula Land Investors sold six acres of land to defendant Sutter for $160,000. It was the intention of the parties the purchaser was to develop the land as a shopping center which would enhance the value of contiguous property owned by the seller. The parties agreed Sutter would grant an option to nominees of the seller to repurchase the property in the event construction of a market building on the property had not commenced prior to May 11, 1966. A separate written option agreement was executed which granted the optionee therein named “the exclusive right to purchase the real property during a period commencing with May 11, 1966, and ending with July 11, 1966”; provided the “option shall be null and void if prior to May 11, 1966, construction shall have commenced on the construction of a market building on the real property”; and provided further: “Construction shall be deemed to have commenced if a building…