Can an option clause in a personal contract create an equitable interest in land?
Alberta, Canada
The following excerpt is from Pancanadian Petroleum Ltd. v. Husky Oil Operations Ltd., 1994 CanLII 9084 (AB QB):
And again in Politzer v. Metropolitan Homes Ltd., 1975 CanLII 208 (SCC), [1976] 1 S.C.R. 363 at 374 [[1975] 5 W.W.R. 492], Dickson J. (as he then was), said: The central difficulty, it would seem, is that a single contract cannot readily be regarded as "merely personal" and at the same time as creating an equitable interest in land. Once an option clause creating a land interest is found to be void as infringing the rule against perpetuities, there is really nothing left in the agreement in the nature of a personal contract that can be specifically enforced.
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