Gulden v. Sloan
Supreme Court of North Dakota
311 N.W.2d 568 (1981)
Gulden (plaintiff), holding an option to buy his leased house for $62,400, orally agreed with longtime acquaintance Sloan (defendant) that Gulden would abandon that option and Sloan would buy the house for $68,400, exchanging title to his mobile home with Gulden in return; Sloan completed the purchase and moved into the house while Gulden moved into the mobile home, but Sloan never transferred title to it. Gulden sued for specific performance, but by trial's end Sloan had sold the mobile home to someone else, so the trial court awarded Gulden $6,000 (the difference between the sale price and his original option price); Sloan appealed.
Whether part performance of an oral agreement for the sale of real property may exempt the agreement from the statute of frauds.