88 Ga. 686 | Ga. | 1892
The contract of June 4, 1889, signed by the parties respectively, a copy of which is in the report, was not a present demise or lease which granted to Lindsay & Morgan an immediate estate for years, but was an agreement to give them a future lease for ten years from the time the building to be erected was “ready for occupation.” It is plain from the nature of the agreement and the'language of the instrument that the contract was exeeutoiy on both sides. It was not contemplated that Lindsay & Morgan should become tenants to Weed, or owners of any interest in the premises, or that they should be liable for the payment of the stipulated rent, if Weed did not erect the building and make it ready for occupation. Until that time should arrive, they were to remain without any interest in the property whatever. If the building, as they contend, has not yet been completed and made ready for occupation according to the agreement, the time appointed for an interest to vest in them as lessees, and for their occupation to commence, has not yet arrived; and so they are without any legal ownership of an estate for years, or of a right to possession by virtue of such ownership. The instrument executed as evidence - of the contract contains no words of present demise or any equivalent terms, nor does it fix with certainty either the amount of the annual rent to be paid, or appoint anytime for the completion of the building and the consequent commencement of the ten years term. The amount of the rent was to, or might, depend in part upon the cost of
No lease creating a term of ten years and vesting the same in Lindsay & Morgan having ever come into existence as contemplated by the agreement, what was the effect of admitting them into possession by virtue of the consent given by Weed in his letter to them of Sep tern
What we have ruled embraces .all that is fundamental in the case, and effectually controls the final result of this proceeding in the city court. The court erred in not granting a new trial. Judgment reversed.