Covington v. Robinson

723 S.W.2d 643 (1986)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Robinson (D) owned land and Covington (P) agreed to buy that land for $2,010,675. International Farm (D1) acted as the agent in the sale. The contract was contingent on D getting a federal land bank loan for 75% of the purchase price. P put up $100,000 in earnest money. Upon default, the earnest money was to be divided equally between D and D1. Applications were submitted to two different counties for land bank loans because the land lay between them. The gross monies applied for was 73.98% of the land value, but when money for improvements was counted, it would be 80.81%. The applications were approved, and no effort was made to increase the amount of the loans by 1.02%. P then declined to close the deal. P sued D for the earnest money, and the trial judge found substantial compliance and that P had failed to make a good faith effort to close the transaction. Ds got the earnest money and P's appealed.