153 Ga. 47 | Ga. | 1922
Lead Opinion
(After stating the foregoing facts.)
At the time Sorrell bought from Bonus Turner, the paper title to all that part of lot 389 in the ninth district of Colquitt county, north of Bear creek, was in Bonus Turner, under a deed to him from the plaintiff. While the title was thus in Turner, Sorrell claims to have bought these lands, and that he paid Turner therefor in full. This was before the plaintiff undertook to have Turner correct the alleged mistake in the deed by which the plaintiff conveyed to Turner the premises in dispute. When Sorrell bought from Turner, and, as he alleges, paid Turner in full for the tract of land embraced in the deed from May to Turner, which deed embraces the premises_in dispute, the title was in Turner. As both
Full payment of the purchase-money alone, accepted by the vendor, would be sufficient part performance to justify a decree requiring Turner to convey this land to Sorrell. Civil Code, § 4634. Furthermore, Sorrell, being the defendant, could successfully defend by showing the full payment of the purchase-money. Payment in full of the purchase-money would give him such title as would enable him to defend in this case against the attack made upon him by the plaintiff;. Payment in full of the purchase-money, in this State) gives to the purchaser a perfect equity, which is a good title even at law, and is sufficient to support or defeat an action of ejectment. Pitts v. McWhorter, 3 Ga. 5 (46 Am. D. 405); Peterson v. Orr, 12 Ga. 464 (58 Am. D. 484); Dudley v. Bradshaw, 29 Ga. 17, 25; Temples v. Temples, 70 Ga. 480, 483; Glover v. Stamps, 73 Ga. 209 (54 Am. R. 870); Howell v. Ellsberry, 79 Ga. 475 (5 S. E. 96); Dodge v. Spiers, 85 Ga. 585 (11 S. E. 610).
The fact that the deed from May to Turner describes the land as containing forty acres, more or less, when the land within the boundaries of this deed amounts to ninety-two acres, will not defeat the claim of Sorrell to all the land within these boundaries, if he purchased the same from Turner and paid therefor. When land is conveyed by metes and bounds, whether there be more or less than the quantity named in the deed, the purchaser obtains the whole of it. Benton v. Horsley, 71 Ga. 619. So Turner obtained all the land within the boundaries given in the deed from May to him, and when Sorrell bought the tract from Turner, and paid him therefor, be obtained the whole of the tract, although it contained much more land than the quantity named in this deed. If the defendant could defeat an action of ejectment by showing a perfect equity, growing out of the payment of the purchase-money in full, he can certainly, in a court of equity, rely upon such perfect equity to defeat an action to enjoin him from interfering with the plaintiff, who proposes to sell the timber growing on the premises in dispute. So we can not agree with the contention of counsel
In the third ground the plaintiff moved to rule out this testi-' mony upon the ground that it was irrelevant, and the court refused to rule it out, for the same reasons that he admitted it.
The defendant was seeking specific performance of his contract to purchase from Turner. Inadequacy of price may justify a court in refusing to decree specific performance. Civil Code, § 4637. It further throws light upon the question whether May sold Turner all the land north of Bear creek. Therefore the value of these swamp lands and the timber thereon at the time May sold to Turner, and Turner to Sorrell, was relevant and important.
The court ruled that there was a recital in the mortgage that Bonus Turner owed the amount of money therein specified. It is complained that this ruling in admitting said paper amounted to an expression by the court of opinion as to a material issue in the ease, that is, that it showed that Turner owed, at the date of the trial, the amount of money recited in the mortgage. Sorrell contended that he bought the premises in dispute from Turner, that he was to pay the incumbrances thereon, including this mortgage, and that he had paid the amount of this mortgage in accordance with the said agreement between himself and Turner. Under this contention it was immaterial whether the description of the property embraced in this mortgage was sufficient or not. If Sorrell paid from the purchase-money of this land the amount of this mortgage, under said agreement, he was entitled to credit therefor, whether the mortgage was valid or invalid. The' ruling to the effect that the mortgage recited that Turner owed the amount to secure which it was given did not amount to an ex-' pression of opinion by the court. The mortgage did contain this recital, and there was no dispute as to the existence of the recital. The fact that Turner testified at the trial that this mortgage had been paid before Sorrell purchased this land was not a good objection to the admission of these instruments. It is not a good objection to the admission of relevant testimony that one of the litigants controverts such testimony.
In the seventh ground the plaintiff asserts that the court erred in admitting in evidence the note given by Bonus and John Turner to Thrasher, for the sum of $88.50, dated September 4, 1886, and due October 1, 1887, being for the purchase-money of a mule, with a transfer thereof to Sorrell. The objection to the admission of this evidence was that Turner testified that he owed nothing on said note at the time Sorrell claims to have purchased this land; that the note was barred by the statute of limitations, and could
In the eighth ground it is complained that the court erred in admitting, “over proper objection,” a mortgage from John Turner to J. T. Sorrell, dated January 9, 1892, and duly recorded on February 1, 1892, to secure an indebtedness of $65, on Nov. 1, 1892, given on certain land therein described. The plaintiff objected to the admission of this instrument, on the ground that the description of the land embraced in this mortgage was insufficient to create a lien thereon, and for the further reason that John Turner is not a party to this suit, and Bonus Turner can not be bound by the contract of John Turner. • The court, in admitting this testimony, stated that there was testimony, he believed, that John Turner had an interest in the property though the legal title was in Bonus Turner, and that Sorrell bought under an agreement by which he was to pay this indebtedness. It is' complained that the court thus expressed an opinion, in the presence of the jury, upon a material part of the testimony in the case, and thus committed error prejudicial to the rights-of the plaintiff. Under the contention of the defendant he was to pay this debt from the purchase-money of the premises in dispute. The evidence in the case shows that John Turner paid to May half of the purchase-money of the land, embracing the premises in dispute, to which May made his deed to Bonus Turner; and that thus John Turner had an interest therein. There is no dispute in the evidence about this fact. The trial judge does not express an opinion when he states in the hearing of the jury a fact about which there is no dispute. Marshall v. Morris, 16 Ga. 368. For the above reasons the court did not err in admitting any of the documents above referred to, and did not express any opinion upon the facts which would require the grant of a new trial.
We deal first with the errors alleged to exist in the first excerpt from the charge of the court. It is asserted that Sorrell did not enclose the land in dispute, and that his acts of ownership were such as to constitute only acts of trespass, which could not ripen into a prescriptive title. There was evidence from which the jury could find that Sorrell purchased the tract of land embracing the premises in dispute, on January 17, 1893; that he went into possession of the tract embracing the premises in dispute that year; that he cleared, fenced, and cultivated most of the uplands on this tract; that shortly after his purchase he leased all the pine
We deal next with the other portion of the charge, which is set out in this ground, and which deals with the subject of specific performance, and to which the plaintiff excepts. In this excerpt from the charge the court instructed the jury "that specific performance of a parol contract as to land . . will be decreed if
It is further insisted that this charge is erroneous because it instructed the jury that “ if the defendant admits the contract ” it will be sufficient to authorize specific performance, when the defendant, Bonus Turner, denied that he ever made any sale of the premises in dispute to Sorrell. There is enough in the testimony of Bonus Turner to authorize this charge; but if not, we do not think that it requires the grant of a new trial. The court gave in charge to the jury the whole of section 4634 of the Code, which embraces the language, “ if the defendant admits the contract.” All the rest of this section was clearly applicable to the ease. The jury could hardly have been misled by the court giving in charge the whole of this section.
It is further urged that this portion of the charge is erroneous, because Sorrell and Turner were both defendants, and Sorrell could not convert his answer into an equitable petition for specific performance against Turner, and have title decreed into him from Turner so as to defeat the title of the plaintiff. All the parties were before the court. On the application of the plaintiff the defendant Bonus Turner was made a party defendant for the pur
It is next urged that this charge was erroneous, because the suit was brought by May against Sorrell, to which Turner was after-wards made a party, and that Sorrell could not so amend his defense as to convert it into an equitable petition for specific performance as against Turner, the suit being in Colquitt county, and Bonus Turner being a resident of Lowndes county. Here the plaintiff undertakes to raise the question of the jurisdiction of the court of the person of the defendant, Bonus Turner. If the want of jurisdiction had been raised by Bonus Turner, this point would be a serious one (Clayton v. Stetson, 101 Ga. 634, 28 S. E. 983);
Judgment affirmed.'
Dissenting Opinion
who dissent on the ground