145 Ga. 373 | Ga. | 1916
The plaintiff was an-illiterate, unmarried negro man, more than seventy years of age, and the owner of 370 acres of land of the alleged value of $10,000. He filed a petition against the defendant to cancel a contract which had recently been recorded, by the terms of which it is purported that he agreed to sell to the defendant 100 acres of the land at $20 per acre, to be paid for in annual installments ■ of $100 without interest, and to give and transfer at his death the balance of the land to the defendant in consideration that the latter would care for and support him as one of his own family during life or so long as he remained with the defendant. There was a stipulation in the recorded instrument that the defendant could use and sell the timber on the 270 acres, and credit the proceeds bn the purchase-price of the 100 acres. The plaintiff denied that he signed such a contract. He alleged, that the defendant was employed by him to grow a crop on the land in consideration that he was to receive a part of the crop raised; and that he was aroused from sleep on one occasion by the defendant, who presented him a paper for his signature, representing that it was the usual cropper contract, or some paper that it was necessary for him as landlord to sign, and requested him to sign it. This he did by making his mark. If the paper sought to be canceled was signed by him, it was procured by fraud. If it should turn out to be a different paper, then his signature was forged. The plaintiff died before the trial of the
Judgment affirmed.