138 Ga. 219 | Ga. | 1912
The plaintiff in error, Fowler, administrator upon the estate of Williams, brought suit upon certain promissory notes against Wood, the defendant in error. The defendant in his plea admitted the execution of the notes, their delivery to the plaintiff, and the ownership of the latter, but contended, among other defenses, that the notes were given for 'the purchase-price of a certain tract or parcel of land; that at the time of the execution of the notes a bond was delivered to him, conditioned to make title to the land upon the payment of the notes. The bond for title was as follows, omitting the formal parts and the recital of the penal sum: “The condition of the obligation is such that whereas the above bound W. C. Williams has this day agreed to sell the said E. V. Wood a certain tract or parcel of land lying and being in the 1397th and 562nd dists. G. M., and bounded as follows: adjoining lands of Mrs. S. E. Cain, A. J. Crane, J. W. Boebuck, Isaac Duncan, J. C. Pool, G. W. Martin, J. S. Hardy, G. W. Hardy,' Mrs. Holman, containing 242-1/2 acres, at $12.50 an acre, and known as the W. C. Williams place, for the sum of $3,031.25, and has given his promissory notes dated Sept. 4-th, 1906, and due as follows: [reciting the dates of each note]. Now if the said E. V: Wood shall well and truly pay the said several sums of money at the time or times specified, then the said W. C. Williams is bound to execute to the said E. V. Wood or assigns a good and sufficient title to the aforesaid tract of land; but on failure of the said E. Y. Wood to pay the aforesaid sums of money or either of them at times specified, then the obligation to be void and of no effect.” Defendant alleged that upon a survey of the land described it was found to contain 223-2/3 acres, or about 18-7/8 acres less than it had been represented to contain, and insisted that he was entitled to a proportional abatement of the purchase-price. The jury returned a ver