When can plaintiffs seek damages for failure to exercise their options as an alternative to specific performance?

In the case before us, plaintiffs sought to exercise their options 3 years after the optionor's death, and it was only after those options were not honored that plaintiffs sought damages as an alternative to specific performance. The cause of action in the case at bench did not arise until 3 years after the death of the optionor, because it was not until that time that plaintiffs' attempts to exercise the options were rejected. In Sperry v. Tammany (1951) 106 Cal.App.2d 694, at 698, 235 P.2d 847, 849, the court said: