139 Ga. 816 | Ga. | 1913
The Chicago Building and Manufacturing Company brought suit against F. J. Butler and eighteen others, and alleged that the defendants were subscribers to a contract wherein each agreed to pay $100, subject to the conditions of the contract, the material portions of which are hereinafter set out. The defendants were alleged also to be members of the Greensboro Creamery Association, referred to in the contract as the first party thereto. By the terms of the contract the plaintiff was to erect, build, equip, and deliver to the defendants a butter factory, in consideration of the purchase-price of $4,950. The contract stipulates that “For any unpaid or deferred balance of subscription all delinquent subscribers are jointly liable.” It is also provided that when “any payment is deferred, all necessary costs of collection and
The defendants filed their plea of non est factum; 'and set up that the alleged contract was obtained from them by the agents of the plaintiff through fraud, in that the subscription-list paper was folded by the plaintiff’s agents so as to conceal from defendants the written contract on the other side, and by certain misrepresentations made by those agents as to matters not embraced in the contract; that the figures “1” to “100,” representing respectively the number of shares of stock and the price thereof, appearing opposite their names, were not on the paper when they signed, and were not placed there by their consent or with their knowledge; and that the paper the defendants signed was a blank sheet containing only the names of a sufficient number, as the agents of the plaintiff represented, to insure the building of the plant, and defendants did not know they were signing a contract' with conditions as set out in the contract sued on. Demurrers in abundance were filed by both the defendants and the plaintiff, some of which were sustained and some overruled by the court. After much evidence pro and con, the ease went to the jury, which returned a verdict for all the defendants. A motion for a new trial was overruled, and the plaintiff excepted.
Judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part.