168 Ga. 400 | Ga. | 1929
Lead Opinion
George Anthony brought a petition against Chicopee Manufacturing Corporation et al., and sought injunction to restrain them from interfering with him and his business as a grocery merchant and from interfering with the delivery of goods purchased by tenants residing in the houses built by the defendant corporation upon lands owned by it. That corporation is the owner of a large tract of land in Hall County, near the City of Gainesville, Georgia, on which is maintained and operated a large industrial plant for the purpose of manufacturing surgical gauze, cheese cloth, buntings, and similar fabrics. It further appears that, connected with and as a necessary part of this plant and enterprise, it laid out and constructed and built a mill village of paved streets, modern.street lights, sanitary drainage and sewerage, with up-to-date equipment and well-built and equipped dwellings for the housing of the employees of said plant and enterprise. These houses are equipped with conveniences which make for comfort, cleanliness, and health, and insure the best sanitary conditions. This
A contract was signed by the employees living in the village and occupying the houses thereof, providing that the premises in the village should not be used for any purpose except for the purpose of a home place, and that in accepting the terms and conditions of the lease contract the employees agreed “to abide by, obey, and maintain all rules and regulations of the village that are or may hereafter be prescribed by said Chicopee Manufacturing Corporation during the duration of this lease contract.” It was also shown that almost all the goods manufactured by the plant of defendant are exclusively for surgical use and for use by physicians in ministering to the sick, and defendant is anxious that the very best sanitation possible be used in its village and among its employees and that they be kept from the use of anything that might produce sickness. To secure this end defendant invested large sums of money in a private dairy with the best modern equipment, in order to furnish its employees with proper milk. The cows of this dairy are inspected weekly and kept in the best of condition.
After the introduction of evidence by both parties, the trial judge passed an order refusing to grant the injunction prayed against the Chicopee Manufacturing Corporation; and to the order refusing the injunction sought the plaintiff excepted.
• The controlling question in this case relates to the right of third persons to pass over private ways for the purpose of delivering goods which had been purchased from them by tenants of the owner of the land upon which the houses occupied by the tenants were located. It appears from the testimony in this case that petitioner was a retail groceryman and delivered groceries purchased, when instructed to do so, at the homes of his customers, some of whom were tenants occupying houses upon the property of the defendant corporation, and which they occupied under a written contract with the defendant corporation.
“Under the general rule that those rights essential to the' enjoyment of the demised premises pass as appurtenant thereto, rights of ingress and egress by the usual way pass to the tenant, although not specified, or the word ‘ appurtenances ’ is not employed. . . So a tenant is entitled to the maintenance of an entrance which is necessary to the full enjoyment of his use of the premises, although it may not be the only means of access.. . . Eights of ingress and egress which are not expressly granted must be necessary to the complete enjojunent of the premises for the purpose for which they were rented.” 36 C. J. 33, 34, § 634.
“The right of way appurtenant to a leased house includes not only the right of the lessee to use it, but a right of use by any other person who, with the tenant’s permission, visits the house for a lawful purpose.” Commonwealth v. Burford, 225 Pa. 93 (77 Atl. 1064). In Mitchell v. State, 12 Ga. App. 557 (77 S. E. 889), it was said: “Where premises are rented to another, the landlord has no right, during the tenancy, to forbid a third person to go
If the petitioner in this case had the right to go over the ways in question to reach the houses of those who had made purchases from him and who were tenants of houses on the land of the defendant corporation, then the act of the defendant corporation in ejecting him from the ways of the mill village and the use of force to eject him therefrom, and the threatened continuance of these forcible means to prevent the tradesman from reaching the houses of his customers, were such threatened wrongs on the part of the defendants as would give jurisdiction to a court of equity to restrain them and to prevent the repetition of the wrongs.
We do not mean by anything said in this opinion, of course, that the defendant corporation could not make a specific contract with its tenants or those who are about to become its tenants.that the ways of ingress to the houses rented should not be used by tradesmen for the purpose of delivering goods; and where such a specific contract is made, it might be a modification or qualification of the right of ingress and egress in those who are carrying on business with the tenants, and whose purpose in going upon the ways is to deliver goods purchased by the tenants. If such a specific contract had been shown, a different question -would have been presented in this record. And we do not here and now rule upon what would have been the effect of such a specific contract. But the fact that notices against trespassers had been posted, and the further fact that the tenant had signed a contract agreeing to abide by and comply with the rules and regulations made by the defendant, did not have the effect to qualify or restrict the right of a tenant to a way of ingress and egress for himself or for those who came to his house for a lawful business.
Judgment reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. I am of the opinion that the stipulation in the contract of rental to the effect that the tenant agreed “to obey and maintain all rules and regulations . . that are or may hereafter be prescribed . . during the . . contract, construed in connection with the evidence showing, circumstantially at least, that the delivery of the articles in question was forbidden, au