In August 2006, Ronald DuPree entered into an agreement to buy a parcel of real property owned by the South Atlantic Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, Inc. “South Atlantic”. The contract was executed on behalf of South Atlantic by the pastor of New Jerusalem Seventh-Day Adventists Church. The contract indicated that DuPree had made an initial earnest money payment of $3,000 in August 2006, and was required to make another earnest money payment of $10,000 on December 2, 2006. Due to an oversight, DuPree failed to make the second earnest money payment. Apparently no one noticed the omission, and the pastor, New Jerusalem’s real estate agent, DuPree’s real estate agent, and the closing attorneys communicated and generally proceeded as if the December 12, 2006 closing were going forward as scheduled. However, on December 11, 2006, the executive secretary for South Atlantic informed its real estate agent, for the first time, that the pastor had not been authorized to enter into the contract and that South Atlantic would therefore not consent to the closing. The executive secretary stated, however, that South Atlantic’s executive committee would meet in late January 2007, and would decide then whether to approve the contract. New Jerusalem’s real estate agent relayed the message to DuPree’s real estate broker. On December 21, 2006, DuPree’s attorney sent a letter to South Atlantic demanding that South Atlantic proceed to closing.
South Atlantic’s executive committee met in January 2007 and voted not to sell the property. When asked on deposition what the committee members discussed concerning the sale, the executive secretary noted that “there was some discussion that that property is worth a lot more than the proposed price,” and that “it is more valuable to us to keep the property than to sell” it.
