150 Ga. 452 | Ga. | 1920
The African Methodist Episcopal Chnreh filed an equitable petition in the superior court of Hancock county against W. A. Bass, a citizen of that county. The allegations of the petition in substance are as follows: The plaintiff is a corporation chartered under the laws of the State of Ohio. It has been in the actual possession of a church house and the land on which the same is situated in Hancock county for more than forty years. Its possession was permissive until November 5, 1913, on which date it entered into a contract with the defendant to purchase the church house and land on which the same was situated. The land is described as follows: “The same fronting on the Sparta and Milledgeville public road; the amount of land to be conveyed to be two (2) acres; the boundaries of said two acres of land to begin at a certain designated pine tree on the Sparta and. Milledgeville public road, just to the right of the road leading from said public road to the church house, and to run at right angles from the Sparta and Milledgeville public road by and beyond the church house from said public road, and then parallel to said Sparta and Milledgeville public road, and then at right angles from a corner, in the rear of the church house towards the Sparta and Milledgeville public road and parallel with the boundary line leading from Sparta and Milledgeville public road back to the Milledgeville and Sparta public road, and thence along the line of said road towards Sparta, to the pine tree on said public road at the beginning point; the church house to be in the center of the two acres of land.” The petitioner agreed to pay $200 for the two-acre tract of land, and after paying a portion of this amount made substantial and valuable improvements on the same. Since the date of its purchase petitioner has remained in the possession of the land. It has paid the full amount of the purchase-money, but the defendant refuses to execute a deed according to the contract. Since the payment of the purchase-money the defendant has entered upon the premises, destroyed the trees upon the church-house grounds, removed the steps from the church building, and has attempted to exclude the petitioner from possession. The plaintiff prayed, that title to the two-acre tract of land for church and school purposes be decreed to be in it; that defendant
Construing the action as an action for specific performance of a contract by which a landowner agreed to convey land to the plaintiff, a corporation created and existing under the laws of the State of Ohio, the right of the plaintiff to maintain the action is questioned in one ground of the demurrer. The petition does not set out the charter powers of the corporation. It is not averred that the corporation has the power or right to acquire or hold land in the State of Ohio. The plaintiff in error relies upon the decision in Carver Cotton Gin Co. v. Barrett, 66 Ga. 526. In that case a corporation created under the laws of Massachusetts filed a petition to recover an interest in certain realty alleged to. have been illegally sold for taxes and purchased by a cotenant or joint owner with the plaintiff. The judgment dismissing the petition on demurrer was affirmed by this court, on the ground that the petition failed to show title, either legal or equitable, in the complainant. In the course of the opinion by Jackson, C. J., it was said: “While this court recognizes the rule of comity, by which foreign corporations are permitted the privileges in this State which are granted them in other States, under .our Code, § 1675 [Civil Code of 1910, § 2203], yet we are not informed whether this corporation has, by charter, the right to hold real estate in Massachusetts, for its charter is not set out in the bill, nor is any statute of Massachusetts therein stated which grants it such a franchise. A corporation lives only by the breath which the legislature gives it, and can move nowhere and hold nothing, unless the power be granted by its creator. It may hold in Georgia what it had the power to hold in Massachusetts, unless against public policy here, but certainly nothing more. Courtesy to Massachusetts extends no further than to permit her child to do here what the child may do at home.” The Civil Code of 1910, § 2203, provides: “ Corporations created by other States or foreign governments are recognized in our courts only by comity, and so long as the same comity is extended in their courts to corporations created by this State.” Section 2204 declares: “No foreign corporation shall exercise within this State
Moreover, the petition prays for the writ of injunction against a continuing trespass, and for judgment for damages to plaintiff’s property. Whether the contract set out in the petition was in writing or rested only in parol is not alleged. In the sixth paragraph of the petition a receipt for a part of the purchase-money, signed by the defendant, is set forth. In this receipt the defendant certifies that he has “sold to the Colored M. E. Church, North, two acres of land that the church is now on for church purposes, for the sum of $200.” In the seventh paragraph of the petition another receipt, under-the hand and seal of the defendant, and executed before a notary public of Hancock county, is set out. This writing recites the payment of a stated sum “for two acres of land on the Hall place that the A. M. E. Church
Judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part.