53 S.E.2d 473 | Ga. | 1949
The petition set forth a cause of action against each defendant, and the court did not err in overruling the general demurrers.
The petitioners charge that the defendant, Mary Inez Williams, holds the legal title to the said premises under a deed obtained from Mrs. Ida H. Roerig, recorded in Deed Book 2001, page 127, but that the defendant, Mrs. B. S. Williams, is the actual owner of the said premises, and she has simply taken title to the property in the name of her said daughter. If, on the other hand, the said Mary Inez Williams is the actual owner of the property, she has colluded with the defendant, Mrs. B. S. Williams, and has received the actual benefits from the leasing of the said premises to the petitioners for the purpose of evading the penalties provided by the Federal rent regulations, and she would, in that event, be liable to the petitioners, under the said regulations, for triple the amount of the actual excess rent collected, which amounts to $1440 as to the petitioner McElmurray, $1165 as to the petitioner Higgason, and $705 as to the petitioner Barfield, and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, in addition to the said amounts. Unless the petitioners are permitted to remain in possession of the said premises and to offset the rent now fixed on the said premises by the Housing Authority, they will be deprived by the said defendants from collecting the judgments which they have obtained. The rent now fixed on the said apartments by the Housing Authority is as follows: apartment No. 1, occupied by the petitioner Higgason, $47.50 per month; apartment No. 2, occupied by the petitioner McElmurray, $47.50 per month; apartment No. 4, occupied by the petitioner Barfield, $50 per month. The petitioners allege that equity has jurisdiction of this proceeding for the following reasons: (a) Any lease or contract between the defendant, Mrs. B. S. Williams, and the defendant, Mary Inez Williams, is purely fictitious, and was made for the purpose of defeating the petitioners' claim for excessive rent, and any such lease or contract whereby attornment was obtained from the petitioners by Mrs. B. S. Williams is fraudulent and void. (b) The arrangement whereby legal title to the premises is held in the name of Mary Inez Williams, while Mrs. B. S. Williams was *352 landlord of the premises as to the petitioners, is a fictitious arrangement for the purpose of rendering the defendant, Mrs. B. S. Williams, insolvent and to keep the property beyond the reach of the petitioners for the enforcement of their claim and judgment for excessive rents. (c) To avoid multiplicity of suits, the entire controversy should be heard in one proceeding to prevent the perpetration of fraud upon the petitioners, which cannot be reached by a technical legal proceeding. (d) Only a court of equity can restrain the defendants from dispossessing the petitioners from the premises which they occupy, and subject the property itself to the payment of the claims or offset the judgment which the petitioners have obtained against future rent for the premises. The prayers were: (a) That the legal title to the said premises be decreed to be in the defendant, Mrs. B. S. Williams, and subject to the judgments which the petitioners have obtained against her as hereinbefore described. (b) That the petitioners be awarded judgment against the defendant, Mary Inez Williams, for wilfully violating the provisions of the Federal Rent Control Act and for colluding with the defendant, Mrs. B. S. Williams, to defraud the petitioners from the said excessive rent. (c) That both of the defendants be enjoined from filing in any court any dispossessory proceeding or eviction proceeding by which they might seek to force the petitioners to vacate their respective apartments. (d) That the petitioners be respectively permitted to continue their occupancy of their respective apartments and credit the judgments already obtained against the defendant, Mrs. B. S. Williams, with the monthly rental fixed for the said apartments by the Federal Housing Expediter, as hereinbefore set forth. (e) For process. (f) For general relief.
Mrs. B. S. Williams demurred generally to the petition on the ground that no cause of action was set forth against her. She also demurred on several special grounds.
Mary Inez Williams demurred generally to the petition on the ground that no cause of action was set forth against her, and on the further ground that the petitioners have a complete and adequate remedy at law. She also demurred specially to one ground of the petition. The court overruled all grounds of demurrer, and the defendants except to the judgment overruling the general demurrer of each. *353 No question is raised as to whether there be a misjoinder of causes of action or of parties plaintiff and defendant. Hence, the petitioners are entitled to pursue any cause of action which the petition asserts against either or both of the defendants. After alleging a joint perpetration of fraud upon the part of the defendants, mother and daughter, in colluding with each other in an arrangement whereby the mother, Mrs. B. S. Williams, would pose as and represent herself to be the landlord of the premises in question and collect excessive rents, the legal title being meanwhile fraudulently held in the name of the daughter, Miss Mary Inez Williams, so that the property might not be subjected to any judgment against the mother, it is prayed that the legal title be decreed to be in the mother and the property be subject to the judgment already obtained against the mother for the amount of the excess of rents. If upon the trial the evidence be sufficient to show that the mother is really the owner of the property, a decree of title in her would be authorized as prayed, thus rendering the property subject to the judgment already obtained against the mother. Under the Federal Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended March 30, 1948, c. 161, Title II, § 204, 62 Stat. 98, 50 U.S.C.A., Supp. (1949), § 1899, a tenant may not, subject to certain exceptions not here involved be evicted so long as he continues to pay the rent to which the landlord is entitled. It is alleged that the petitioners have each recovered a judgment for the excess paid in rents in an amount which is the equivalent of several months' rent as authorized by the Federal Housing Expediter. If, therefore, a decree of title be entered in the mother, the petitioners would in equity be entitled to an injunction against Mrs. Williams, as prayed, restraining her as the real owner from instituting any dispossessory proceeding while the judgment remains unsatisfied and the unpaid rentals are not in excess of the amount of the judgment as to each petitioner. If at the time of the trial the judgments for the excess in rents are still more than the amount of any unpaid rents, the petitioners would be entitled to a decree that they be permitted to continue *354 their occupancy of the respective apartments and apply against the rents the amounts of their judgments, provided that they do not seek recovery of their judgments by subjecting the property to levy and sale.
Since the petitioners are not estopped to dispute the title of Mrs. B. S. Williams as landlord because, as alleged, their attornment to her was superinduced by misrepresentations (Tison
v. Yawn,
It follows from the above that the court did not err in overruling the general demurrer of each of the defendants.
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.