53 Ga. App. 171 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1936
Mrs. McCommons sued Greene County for damages to her land resulting from the construction of a highway along a part of the land. She alleged that the county had built a high embankment which acted as a dam preventing the drainage of surface water from the land and forming a basin or pond on the most
The defendant denied the material allegations as to liability, and set up a special defense in that the plaintiff had made a deed to the highway board of a right of way, which deed contained a release in these terms: “And for the same consideration, I do further grant the right to all necessary drainage in the construction and maintenance of said road constructed over the said right of way and on my lands adjacent thereto, and also release said County and State Highway Board from any claim of damage arising on account of construction of said roads or fills and embankments, ditches or culverts or bridges, on account of back water, changing of courses of streams, or in any other manner.”
The plaintiff tendered an amendment to her petition in which she alleged that the release set up by the defendant was not made known to her when she signed the deed nor before; that she had previously talked the matter over with the attorney of the grantee and the understanding between them was that she would convey a right of way over her land for a certain sum, but nothing was said about her releasing any claim for damage to the land caused by construction of the road; that the county attorney came to her home early in the morning and said he was in a hurry to get back to town and that he would read the deed to her, that he stood at the hall door and read that portion of the deed transferring the right of way, but did not read the release referred to in paragraph 2 of the defendant’s answer; that she does not say the omission to read such condition was not from inadvertence and haste, but says it was not read or made known to her; that she did not find out about the release from damages until defendant’s answer in this case was filed and after the portion of the highway touching her place had been completed; that the release “should not operate against her in this suit, as its so operating would result in a legal wrong against plaintiff for which she is in no sense blameable, and would amount to defendant’s taking advantage of its own wrong without fault on her part,” and that the defendant is estopped from setting up the plea. Other allegations in the amendment are unimportant. The court allowed the amendment subject to demurrer.
During the trial the defendant moved orally to strike the amend
It does not appear from the evidence or the allegations in the plea that the plaintiff, who presumably was able to read, was laboring under any disability, or that there was any emergency which would dispense with the necessity of the plaintiff’s reading the contract. Nor was there any fiduciary or confidential relationship existing between the plaintiff and the attorney for the grantee in the deed which would justify the plaintiff in relying on the attorney’s alleged representations as to the contents of the deed.. The mere fact that the plaintiff signed the deed in a room where the
The grantor in a suit by her to recover damages from which she had released the defendant by the terms of the deed, could not repudiate the deed on the ground of the alleged fraud without having refunded or offered to refund the consideration which she had been paid for the execution oE the deed.
The provision in the deed by which the plaintiff released the defendant and the State Highway 'Board “from any claim of damage arising on account of construction of said roads or fills and embankments, ditches or culverts or bridges, bn account of back water, changing of courses of streams, or in any other manner,” operated to release the defendant from any liability to the plaintiff for the damages sued for.
Judgment affirmed.