Chomicky v. Buttolph
Supreme Court of Vermont
521 A.2d 989 (Vt. 1987)
Buttolph (defendant) and Chomicky (plaintiff) signed a written contract for the sale of lakeside property contingent on Buttolph obtaining a subdivision permit; when that contingency looked uncertain, Chomicky orally proposed an alternative where Buttolph would sell the whole parcel while retaining a lake-access easement, and Buttolph orally agreed, but the day after the permit was actually denied, Buttolph called off the deal entirely. Chomicky sued for specific performance of the oral modification, and the trial court granted it based partly on financing arrangements, a title search, and a down payment Chomicky had made; Buttolph appealed.
Whether an oral modification to a written land sale contract is enforceable under the part-performance exception to the Statute of Frauds, when the buyer's claimed reliance consists only of ordinary preparatory steps common to any real estate purchase.