146 Ga. 425 | Ga. | 1917
(After stating the foregoing facts.)
1. ' The trial developed that the defendant did not claim any interest in the land in controversy beyond that acquired by virtue of his lease contract with the Georgia Eailroad and Banking Company. Under that contract he was a tenant at will, entitled as against his lessor to remove the building from the land within thirty days after the termination of his tenancy. That relation existed at the time-of the institution of the ejectment suit by the plaintiffs against the railroad company. The defendant, though not a party, knew of the suit against his landlord by these plaintiffs to recover a tract of land, which included the premises involved in the present controversy. The judgment in an ejectment suit is binding on the actual parties, but it may also bind others. A judgment for the plaintiff not only binds the defendant, but also his tenant who claims no other interest in the land except to occupy if as a tenant. Moreover the tenant, the defendant in the present action, admits that he knew of the pending suit against his landlord, but excuses himself from taking part therein, because of assurances of the plaintiffs that his title to the house and his right to remove it would be respected by them in the event they prevailed in the suit. Unless he was prevented by the conduct of the plaintiffs from making the defense he now seeks to avail himself of, he would be concluded by that suit. Rodgers v. Bell, 53 Ga. 94; Powell on Actions for Land, § 424. As to the conduct of the plaintiffs in. this regard the evidence was in conflict, and in the absence of any complaint of the court’s instruction on this phase of the ease it will be presumed that this issue was properly submitted.
2. Our code makes a distinction, in regard to setting off improvements against mesne profits, between one who is bona fide in
3. It is contended that the tenant was not such a bona fide possessor as to entitle him to the benefits of the statute, on. account of the clause in his lease contract with the railroad company, reciting that the railroad’s title was disputed by other persons, the rightfulness of which claim was denied by the railroad company, and because of the covenant that if the title of the railroad company should fail the tenant should not hold the railroad company liable in damages by reason of having erected his building on the
4. The record of the suit to recover land, brought by the same plaintiffs against the Georgia Eailroad and Banking Company, eventuating in a judgment, was introduced in evidence; and also the lease contract-from the railroad company to the defendant. Objection was offered to the introduction of this contract; and the court, in allowing such evidence, stated in the presence of the' jury as follows: “I will let that in for the purpose of the jury taking into consideration in passing on the question as to whether or not the defendant holds under the Georgia Eailroad and Banking Company. I hold, as a matter of law, that the plaintiffs, if entitled to recover at all in this case, will be entitled, to recover only the rental value as shown from the evidence in this case that the land was worth.” This positive limitation on the plaintiffs’ right of recovery and the evidential value of the lease contract was harmful error. The plaintiffs contended that the defendant did not act in good faith in putting the improvements on the land. An important factor of such contention was that the defendant’s contract, by virtue of which he constructed the storehouse, put him on notice that the railroad company was not the true owner of the land. When the court limited the scope of the evidence as he did, he denied to the plaintiffs the consideration by the jury of this fact on the question of the bona tides of the defendant in making the improvements. Under the facts of this case we regard this incident of the trial as highly prejudicial- to the plaintiffs’ rights.
Judgment reversed.