81 Ga. 725 | Ga. | 1889
*726 “ becomes due and payable whenever the board of directors of said railroad company shall decide that the- .... section of twenty miles, (starting at some point on E. T., Va. & Ga. railroad, either in Henry or Butts county, Ga.) or of so many miles as is necessary to complete a railroad of not less width than a standard gauge, between Columbia, Ga., and some point on the E. T.,Va. & Ga. railroad, with the privilege of entering Atlanta, Ga., on the track of any railroad with terminal facilities there, is graded and ready for the cross-ties, trestles and bridges. Publication of said decision of said board of directors, in any newspaper published in Griffin, Ga., shall be final and conclusive notice to me of the same.”
We have studied carefully this somewhat confused and involved language, and our construction of it is, that the only matter constituting the substance of the condition precedent and forming the question for the board of directors to decide and give notice of their decision by publication in a newspaper, was the completion of the contemplated railroad, “ready for the cross-.ties, trestles and bridges.”
There was no stipulation that the privilege of entering Atlanta was to be secured before the notes became payable. The clause relating to that privilege was introduced to describe the railroad as it was to be ultimately, not as it was to be at the maturity and payment of the subscriptions to the capital stock. It might be that the money sought to be raised from these subscriptions would be needed for the very purpose of securing the privilege in question, just as it might be needed for the purpose of carrying on to completion the unfinished railroad beyond the stage of readiness for cross-ties, trestles and bridges. We think the published decision of the board comprehends all that was essential either to be done or decided as a condition precedent to the payment of these notes. The pleas as expounded here raised no question as to. the fact that completion was so far advanced as to prepare the road for the cross-ties, trestles and bridges. The matter of complaint was, that the
Judgment affirmed.