Rittigstein

Plaintiff sued for the specific performance of a contract to sell real property. Defendant had judgment, from which the plaintiff has appealed on typewritten transcripts.

The contract was in writing upon a form generally used by members of the San Francisco Real Estate Board. When presented to the defendant for signature it read (in part) : “Received from Bruce Painter, hereinafter designated as the purchaser, the sum of Five Hundred ($500.00) Dollars being deposited on account of Twenty Thousand ($20,000:00) Dollars lawful money of the United States of America, the purchase of the following described property in the City and County of San Francisco, . . . Subject to: Bank loan of twelve thousand ($12,000.00) Dollars to one subsisting lease, etc.” Before signing the contract the defendant drew a line in ink through the words and figures “twenty thousand ($20,000.00) Dollars” and inserted the figures “$21,000.00” and then added after the word “dollars” the words “net cash to be paid to seller”. The contract, as thus altered, was then presented to the purchaser, who gave his approval and deposited the sum of $9,000, which he claimed to be the full purchase price upon the assumption…