Statute of Frauds - Legal Description Requirements Strictly Enforced
A recent Division One Court of Appeals case highlights the importance of including an unambiguous legal description in any contract for the sale of real property. The Court has once again strictly enforced the Statute of Frauds, which requires a description of the land to be transferred that is sufficiently definite to locate it without recourse to oral testimony. The parties in Dick Bedlington Real Estate, L.L.C. v. Tawes, No. 59387-1-I (2008) (unpublished) entered into two separate purchase and sale agreements. In the first agreement, the seller agreed to sell a parcel of land of approximately 88 acres, with 3 acres reserved to the seller. The "approximate" location of the land reserved to the seller was noted, along with a statement that "[t]he exact configuration shall be approved by the parties prior to closing." In the second agreement, the seller agreed to sell "3 acres" of a larger parcel that was described in the agreement.
The Court held that the legal descriptions in both agreements were deficient under the Statute of Frauds because they did not contain enough information to locate the land to be sold. The court refused to read the two agreements together to cure this deficiency, and held that the agreements were void and unenforceable.
