Halpert V. Rosenthal Summary

The facts of Halpert v. Rosenthal are as follows:
In early February, defendant (Rosenthal) and the plaintiff (Halpert) were in the process of a house sale. Defendant intended to purchase plaintiff’s house for $54,000 dollars. The house was inspected by the defendant who asked the plaintiff’s real estate agent if the home had termites. The real estate agent informed the defendant that there was not a termite problem in the home. Later, the defendant’s brother-in-law asked the plaintiff if there were termites in the house and the plaintiff said no. Before the defendant signed the sales agreement, he inquired again if there were termites in the house and if an inspection was necessary, the agent restated that there were no termites in the home. On February 21, 1967, the two parties entered into a real estate agreement and the defendant paid $2,000 dollars as a deposit. This was the …show more content…
Based on the facts of the case we can infer that the buyer and the seller have a contract. A misrepresentation is a false statement made by one party in a contract, for example my textbook is brand new when in fact it’s twenty years old. This would be a misrepresentation. Misrepresentations make a contract voidable because it causes one party to enter into a contract under a fictitious statement. The four elements of misrepresentation are: a misrepresentation has occurred, the misrepresentation is material or fraudulent, recipient relied on the material misrepresentation or fraudulent misrepresentation to enter into a contract, and recipient was justified in his or her reliance of the misrepresentation. A misrepresentation is an assertion not in accord with the facts at the time the assertion is made. The assertion that the house did not have termites was an inaccurate assertion, because there were in fact termites in the house when the seller said that there was not, this is a