This section is from the book "The Law Of Real Property and Other Interests In Land", by Herbert Thorn Dike Tiffany. Also available from Amazon: A Treatise on the Modern Law of Real Property and Other Interests in Land .
The vendee under a contract for the sale of land has, in equity, before he receives a conveyance of the land, a lien thereon for any payments which he has made upon the purchase price in case the contract fails of consummation owing to the fault of the vendor.33 This lien appears to be recognized by equity merely for the purpose. of aiding the vendee in the assertion of his quasi contractual right to a return of the purchase money upon a rescission of the contract of sale for the fault of the vendor.34
32. McConnell v. Beattie, 34 Ark. 113; Gessner v. Palmateer, 89 Cal. 89, 13 L. R. A. 187, 24 Pac. 608, 26 Pac. 789; Hutchinson v. Crane, 100 111. 269; Lewis v. Shearer, 189 I11. 184, 59 N. E. 580; Stevens v. Chadwick, 10 Kan. 406, 15 Am. Rep. 348; Robinson v. Harbour, 42 Miss. 795, 97 Am. Dec. 501; First Nat. Bank of Fall City v. Edgar, 65 Neb. 340, 91 N. W. 404; McClintic v. Wise's Adm'rs, 25 Gratt. (Va.) 448, 18 Am. Rep. 694.
33. Rose v. Watson, 10 H. L. Cas. 672; Gerstell v. Shirk, 210 Fed. 223; Cooper v. Merritt, 30 Ark. 686; Stults v. Brown, 112
Ind. 370, 2 Am. St. Rep. 190, 14 N. E. 230; Griffith v. Depew, 3 A. K. Marsh. (Ky.) 177, 13 Am. Dec. 141; Davis v. Heard, 44 Miss. 50; Craft v. Latourette, 62 N. J. Eq. 206, 49 Atl. 711; Elterman v. Hy-man, 192 N. Y. 113, 127 Am. St. Rep. 862, 15 Ann. Cas. 819, 84 N. E. 937; Costen v. McDowell, 107 N. C. 546, 12 S. E. 432; Tyler v. Cate, 29 Ore. 515, 45 Pac. 800; Galbraith v. Reeves, 82 Tex. 357, 18 S. W. 696; Wickman v. Robinson, 14 Wis. 493, 80 Am. Dec. 789; 2 Story, Eq. Jur. Sec. 1217; 3 Pomeroy, Eq. Jur. Sec. 1263.
34. See editorial note, 8 Columbia Law Rev. 571.
 
Continue to: