145 Ga. 604 | Ga. | 1916
The action was by Henry Pilcher’s Sons against Horace Thompson and eight others, as trustees of St. Paul’s A. M. E. Church, to recover the value of a certain pipe-organ alleged to have been installed by the plaintiffs in St. Paul’s church. The petition as finally amended made the following case: The organ was originally sold to St. Paul’s A. M. E. ■ Choir Association. The choir association failed to make any of the payments on the purchase-price, and disbanded, and thereafter notice was given to the church that it, through its trustees, would be expected to pay for the ‘organ if they continued to use the same. At a meeting of the church trustees one of them, in the presence of the others, stated that the pastor of the church was ex oificio a member of the board of trustees, and that the pastor would notify the plaintiffs within a few days “whether or not the church, through its trustees, would undertake to pay for said organ.” No notice was ever given to the plaintiffs of the church’s intention to retain or pay for the organ. The plaintiffs asked for judgment for $1,100, the reasonable value of the organ, “by reason of the long and continued use of the organ by the membership of said church, . . and because of the knowledge of the trustees and members of said church that the plaintiffs expected said church to pay for said organ if same was used; and because defendants, as a religious body, continuously used said organ after notice given as aforesaid.” At the conclusion of the plaintiffs’ evidence the court granted a nonsuit, and the exception is to this judgment.
Judgment affirmed.