52 Ga. 18 | Ga. | 1874
This case came before the court below on an issue formed on a distress warrant for rent, under the provisions of the statute. On the trial, the following facts were proved: On the 1st day of December, 1866, plaintiffs rented to defendant three rooms in the city of Atlanta for the term of three years. The contract was not reduced to writing. The parol agreement was that the defendant was to pay $50 00 per month for the rent of the rooms, took possession at the date of the contract, occupied the rooms, paying the rent each month until the last day of February, 1869, when it left the property. The rent for nine months of the last three years has not been paid. At the instance of defendant, plaintiffs, at their cost, prepared the rooms for a telegraph office, and without change they are not suited for other purposes. Defendant notified plaintiffs of its purpose to quit the premises about two weeks before it vacated them. The court charged the jury: “It is conceded that this is a tenancy at will, by operation of law, the court charges you that if the parties agreed to pay rent monthly at the end of each month, and at the end of each year, then this became by operation of law a tenancy by the year, and you will find for the plaintiffs the amount due for the time; if it be proved by the evidence that rent was paid at the end of each month or year, find the amount still due for the balance due for the remainder of the year the parties were to occupy the premises.” The jury found a verdict for the plaintiffs for $450 00. A motion was made for a new trial, on the grounds that the verdict was contrary to law, contrary to the evidence, and for error in the charge of the court to the
There is no evidence in the record that the defendant agreed to pay rent at the end of each year, as the court assumes in its charge. When the law expressly declares that this was a tenancy at will under the parol contract of the parties, and that a tenant at will may terminate the tenancy at will by giving to the landlord one month’s notice, how such a tenancy at will can, by operation of law, become a tenancy by the year, after the expiration of the one month’s notice, is-not at all apparent to my mind. If the defendant was a tenant at will, as it is conceded that it was, and to pay the rent monthly, it had the clear right, under the law, to terminate the tenancy on giving the landlord one month’s notice thereof, and would
Let the judgment of the court below be reversed.