Millsap

Defendants, who contracted in April 1964 to sell real property known as the Medicine Lodge to plaintiff, appeal a judgment declaring that the contract of sale continues in effect during the pendency of a separate action against them by the Attorney General.

The principal issue turns on the construction of the following provision of the contract: “In the event that the escrow does not close within the time provided [60 days] by reason of some fault of the sellers, sellers agree to extend the escrow for so long as it takes to cure such default, but in no event for longer than 180 days. ’ ’

Five days before the scheduled closing of the escrow in June 1964, the Attorney General filed a Us pendens against the property, giving notice of his suit to subject it to a charitable trust. Medicine Lodge, a nonprofit corporation which had formerly held title to the property, on dissolution had distributed the property to its members, defendants herein, and the Attorney General sought to challenge the propriety of that distribution. (See Lynch v. Spilman, 67 Cal.2d 251 [ 62 Cal.Rptr. 12 , 431 P.2d 636 ].) Since the filing of the lis pen-dens the sellers have been unable to convey marketable…