| Court: | Texas Court of Appeals, 4th District |
| Facts: | Plaintiff (Aldrette) contracted to buy some land, but failed to make payments. Defendants (the De Leons) sold the land (at a lower price), but kept the payments. |
| Posture: | Trial court finds for plaintiff, granting return of the payments plus interest. |
| Issue: | Does a defaulting purchaser have the right to recover partial payments? |
| Holding: | The seller can keep damages (the difference between the actual sale price and the original contract price), but the rest of the money goes back to the purchaser. |
| Rule: | No punitive damages, no unjust enrichment. |
| Reasoning: | A purchaser who pays a substantial portion of the purchase price would be in a worse position than one who payed nothing, if sellers could hold on to partial payments. That would be unjust. |
| Dicta: | |