Parol Evidence Admissible & Statute Of Limitations Explained In Real Estate Sales Contract Twist.

Buyer failed to reconvey property to seller after paying off her debts secured by the home in exchange for the return of the purchase price and payment of a service fee as orally promised by buyer.  The seller’s broker was supposed to memorialize the terms of the deal into a writing, but the written contract did not include the oral promise to reconvey.  The court found that the broker, as a stranger to the written contract between the buyer and seller, was not entitled to prevent the admission of parol evidence since it was not offered to reconstruct the contractual obligations between the buyer and seller, but to prove the seller’s cause of action for fiduciary duty against the broker.  The court also found there is no specific statute of limitation on claims for breach of fiduciary duty by a broker to a seller and that the default four-year limitations period in Code of Civil Procedure section 343, applied.  Thomson v. Canyon (Cal. App. First Dist., Div. 4; August 17, 2011) 198 Cal.App.4th 594, [129 Cal.Rptr.3d 525].