125 Ga. 393 | Ga. | 1906
The executors of M. B. Hudson sought to dispossess Bullard of certain land, alleging that he was a tenant holding over. Bullard filed his counter-affidavit averring that he held the land in his own right. Upon the trial of the case the plaintiffs introduced the following note:
“1000 lbs. By the 15th da}' of October next I promise to pay John B. Hudson, I. S. Hudson, and Sarah T. Hudson, as executors of M. B. Hudson, deceased, 1000 lbs. of middling lint-cotton packed and delivered in Eatonton, G-a., for rent for year 1902 of that certain parcel of land lying in'Putnam county, Ga., on which I now reside, being a two-horse farm being the land I worked in 1901, and adjoining lands of Cinth Athon; B. E. Gooch, Mose Bussy, and-others. As against this debt I waive and renounce all rights of homestead ánd exemption of personalty allowed me under the laws of this State. This February 19th, 1902.
Witness: I. H. Adams, Jr., Ordinary. J. M. Bullard (seal).”
Plaintiffs also introduced evidence tending to prove that the land described in the note was, at the time the defendant entered upon it, the property of their testator’s father, John B. Hudson deceased, and one Mrs. Moseley, as tenants in common; that John B. Hudson, Jr., one of the executors above mentioned, assumed charge of the place upon the death of his father, M. B. Hudson, and sent his
Gorley, the overseer, testified, that Bullard refused to sign the note he carried to him, “because said note, he claimed, called the land a two-horse farm; he said the Tom Bullard tract'was only a one-horse farm, and for' this reason struck out the words, as I have stated. Before his death M. E. Hudson showed me the line between the Hudson lands and the lands occupied by said Bullard; the Tom Bullard tract lies on the east side of this line on Little river.” Defendant sought to prove by Gorley that the land discussed by defendant in the conversation with witness, at the time of the controversy about the “one” or “two” horse farm, was the Tom Bullard tract, and also that the land rented by Bullard in 1901 was the Tom Bullard tract; but the court would not allow the evidence, on the ground “that it would alter and vary the contract, and that the note itself was the highest and best evidence as to what land was rented.” Defendant then offered to show by parol testimony that the consideration expressed in the rent note was not the true consideration thereof, and that he never intended to rent the lands described in the note, “but that the true and only consideration thereof was said Tom Bullard tract.” The court refused to admit this testimony. Defendant also sought to explain the words, “being the land I worked in 1901,” insisting that they were ambiguous; but the court would not permit it. At the conclusion of the evidence, counsel for plaintiffs moved the court to direct a verdict in'their favor,-while defendant’s counsel asked that a non-
Judgment reversed,.