“Part performance is not an accurate designation of such acts as taking possession and making improvements when the contract does not provide for such acts, but such acts regularly bring the doctrine into play. The doctrine is contrary to the words of the Statute of Frauds, but it was established by English courts of equity soon after the enactment of the Statute. Payment of purchase-money, without more, was once thought sufficient to justify specific enforcement, but a contrary view now prevails, since in such cases restitution is an adequate remedy. English decisions treated a transfer of possession of the land as sufficient, if unequivocally referable to the oral agreement, apparently on the ground that the promise to transfer had been executed by a common-law conveyance. Such decisions are not generally followed in the United States. Enforcement has instead been justified on the ground that repudiation after ‘part performance’ amounts to a ‘virtual fraud.’ A more accurate statement is that courts with equitable powers are vested by tradition with what in substance is a dispensing power based on the promisee’s reliance, a discretion to be exercised with caution in the light of all the circumstances.” Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 129 cmt. a (1979).
part performance doctrine
part-performance doctrine. The equitable principle by which a failure to comply with the statute of frauds is overcome by a party’s execution, in reliance on an opposing party’s oral promise, of an oral contract’s requirements. — Sometimes shortened to part performance. See part performance under PERFORMANCE. [Cases: Frauds, Statute of 129.]
