Tohler

By the Court,

A verbal contract was entered into between the plaintiff and one Leidesdorff, now deceased, to whose estate the defendants have succeeded, by which Leid-esdorff conveyed to the plaintiff a lot of land in the city of San Francisco, and the plaintiff agreed to pay therefor five hundred dollars in equal instalments in one and two years. It was decided in Iloen v. Simmons et al., that under Mexican as well as American law, a verbal contract was, of itself alone, insufficient to transfer the title to real estate. That point has again been argued, and we think it entirely clear that the decision in Hben v. Simmons et al. was correct. Unless, therefore, there be circumstances in this case which distinguish it from that, the plaintiff cannot recover. There, the defendants, who had filed a cross bill and thereby become actors, claimed that they were entitled to a specific performance of their verbal agreement. It appeared, however, that there was not even a verbal contract of sale in presentí, but a contract to convey at a future period, and that that contract -was, by the understanding of the parties, to be reduced to writing and signed by them, which was never done. There…