Specific performance of an indivisible land sale can be limited only by purchaser relinquishment of the deficient item.

Specific performance could not be confined under the defective-performance rule because the omitted item formed a substantial part of the contracted property and the bargain was not one capable of being treated as severable. The agreement was for a consolidated sale of both items, so the separable-part principle did not apply. However, the purchaser could at the appellate stage relinquish the deficient item and any compensation claim, and then seek enforcement of the remaining item under the purchaser-protective rule. The modified decree directing conveyance of item 1 was sustained, and the appeal failed.

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Issues: (i) Whether specific performance could be refused or confined when the vendor could not convey one item of the contracted property; (ii) whether the agreement was capable of being treated as divisible so as to enforce conveyance of the separable item; (iii) whether the purchaser could relinquish the claim to the deficient item and seek specific performance of the remaining item at the appellate stage.

Issue (i): Whether specific performance could be refused or confined when the vendor could not convey one item of the contracted property.

Analysis: A decree for partial performance on terms of compensation is available only where the unperformed part is small and immaterial in relation to the whole and can be compensated in money by abatement of the price. The court found that the deficient item formed a substantial part of the total subject matter and therefore the defect was not of the kind that could be ignored or compensated as a minor deficiency.

Conclusion: Section 14 was inapplicable; specific performance could not be upheld on that basis.

Issue (ii): Whether the agreement was capable of being treated as divisible so as to enforce conveyance of the separable item.

Analysis: A contract falls within the provision for separate and independent parts only when the contract can truly be split up and the part sought to be enforced stands on a distinct footing. The agreement here was for sale of both items in one consolidated bargain, and the two items did not constitute separate independent contracts capable of being isolated for specific enforcement.

Conclusion: Section 16 was not attracted, and the contract was not divisible for the purpose of specific performance.

Issue (iii): Whether the purchaser could relinquish the claim to the deficient item and seek specific performance of the remaining item at the appellate stage.

Analysis: The purchaser's right to relinquish further performance and abandon compensation is a statutory option intended for the purchaser's benefit, and it may be exercised at any stage before final disposal of the litigation. Once the purchaser elected to give up the claim to the deficient item and compensation, the case fell within the provision enabling enforcement of the remaining part of the bargain.

Conclusion: Section 15 applied, and the purchaser was entitled to specific performance of the remaining item on surrender of the claim to the deficient item and compensation.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed, and the modified decree directing conveyance of item 1 was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a contract for sale of property is not severable, partial performance based on a substantial and immaterial deficiency cannot be granted under the provision for defective performance, but the purchaser may at any stage relinquish the deficient part and claim specific performance of the remainder under the purchaser-protective provision.

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