Buyer’s Death Requires Heirs to Close

Buyer entered into a contract to purchase a co-op. In connection with doing so, the buyer put his $230,000 deposit into escrow. Between his signing of the contract and closing, the buyer died. The seller argued that the contract was binding on the buyer’s heirs and demanded that the heirs close. The heirs refused. The court found that the contract was binding on the buyer’s heirs, and that no claim of impossibility or frustration of purpose sufficed to excuse performance. The heirs’ refusal to closes was deemed a repudiation and breach.