4 Ga. App. 463 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1908
(After stating the facts as above.)
Conceding that the water company could not exercise its right to discontinue the water on failure to pay for it according to its rules and regulations, without first giving a delinquent five days’ notice of its intention to cut off the water on account of such failure of payment, yet the evidence in this case incontestably shows that the plaintiff in the court below had in fact had much longer than the five days’ notice from the company that his bill was past due and that the water would be discontinued unless payment was made. This notice had been sent to and received by the plaintiff each month for four months before the water was cut off, and it seems to us that, under the admitted facts, the company had fully complied with the requirement as to notice. In other words, ww think the evidence shows that the company had been more indulgent to the delinquent customer on the subject of notice than was required by the contract, even as construed by the court.
In the view that we take of this case, it is not necessary to consider the other numerous assignments of error. On the merits, under the uncontroverted evidence, the plaintiff was not entitled to any recovery at all. He had failed to pay his water rent for a period of four months. He had repeatedly received notices from the company that the water rent must be paid by the 15th of the current month, or the water would be discontinued without further notice. He had disregarded the repeated notices so given to him, and had persisted in his delinquency. His conduct had fully absolved the company from any duty it owed him by reason of its contract with the city, and he had thus given to the company the right to discontinue the water. Instead of there being any breach by the company of its public duty, it had exercised its manifest right to discontinue the water, properly and indulgently; and the verdict against it is wholly unsupported by the evidence, and is therefore contrary to law. The judgment refusing a new trial is Reversed.