Bank of Bullochville v. Riehle

137 S.E. 642, 36 Ga. App. 470, 1927 Ga. App. LEXIS 112
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 26, 1927
Docket17320
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 137 S.E. 642 (Bank of Bullochville v. Riehle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank of Bullochville v. Riehle, 137 S.E. 642, 36 Ga. App. 470, 1927 Ga. App. LEXIS 112 (Ga. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

Bell, J.

The Bank of Bullochville brought suit upon a promissory note against H. C. Biehle, the maker. The defendant filed an answer and several times amended it, the plaintiff at all times demurring. The plaintiff’s demurrers were overruled, and, the case having gone to trial before the judge without a jury upon the issues as made by the answer as amended, and the trial having resulted partially in favor of the defendant, and the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial having been overruled, the plaintiff excepted. The chief burden of the plaintiff’s demurrers was the general insistence that the answer set forth no valid defense. Various allegations of the so-called special demurrers were but amplifications of this contention. One of the special demurrers criticized the answer because it set forth no definite or correct measure of damage, but the demurrer as to this point, having failed to point out any proper or correct measure, was not better than the answer. Such other grounds of special demurrer as might at some stage have been meritorious were sufficiently met by amendments to the answer. Thus, the only question for determination on the exceptions to the overruling of the demurrers is whether the court erred in not sustaining the general demurrers, or, in other words, 'whether the answer set forth any defense. ■ The answer as amended alleged: The note had been executed for- part of the purchase-money of certain real property to which the plaintiff executed and delivered to the defendant a bond for title. Although -the defendant’s original contract to purchase was made with one W. B. Butts, the obligations of the latter were assumed by the plaintiff bank, so that the bank, and not Butts, issued to the defendant the bond for title. In that instrument it was recited that the defendant had paid the sum of $2,000, and it was stipulated that upon payment of the further sum of $3,000, as evidenced by the defendant’s note payable to the bank, the bank would make to the defendant good and sufficient title to the following property in [472]*472this State: “A certain tract or parcel of land situated, lying and being in the town of Bullochville, Meriwether county, and described as follows: the entire coffin manufacturing plant of the Bullochville Casket Company, together with all buildings connected therewith and all machinery and materials now owned by said company and plant. The said manufacturing plant is located in said State and county and in said town- and district, and "the same included all of town lot 5 and lot 6 in block D of the town of Bullochville, and containing one acre more or less, all of which is bounded as follows: north by the right of way of A. B. & A. By., east by land of Mrs. Ida May Brooks, south by Broad st., west by lands of B. H. M. Guano Co.” A part of this property, namely, a certain line of'Water-pipe and a concrete tank, a portion of one building, all of another building, and the dry kiln were situated on the lands of others, who had respectively demanded of the defendant that he surrender possession thereof. Lot 5 is also in the possession of another, while the defendant is in possession of lot 6 only. “The difference in the value of the property he is in possession of and the other property herein referred to which is claimed by the parties hereinabove mentioned who have outstanding paramount titles to same is the sum of $3,000, and he therefore seeks an abatement in the purchase-price in the sum of $3,000.” The defendant did not at any time think or suspect that any part of the buildings or of the machinery was on any other land than lots 5 and 6, but, in good faith relying upon representations made to the defendant “by the said W. B. Butts and the said plaintiff” that such buildings and appurtenances were so situated, he entered into the contract of purchase and accepted the bond for title. “Said W. B.’ Butts and plaintiff represented that all of the plant and said buildings were on the land sold defendant, which representations were fraudulent and a fraud [was] perpetrated on defendant.” One of the amendments to the answer shows that the lots, while sold as numbers 5 and 6, were intended as numbers 6 and 7. The defendant purchased the property believing from the plaintiff’s representations that all of the buildings were situated on these lots (6 and 7), to which the plaintiff delivered possession to the defendant. The defendant purchased the property as a plant and factory for the manufacture of coffins, and, because certain of the buildings and appurtenances are situated on the property of others, [473]*473he is damaged in the sum of $4,500, in that it would cost this amount to remove the buildings and locate them upon the lots purchased, in. a manner suitable to the business, such removal being necessary to enable the defendant to carry on the business of manufacturing caskets. This alleged damage being in excess of the amount of the note sued on, the amended prayer of the answer was to recover of the plaintiff the, excess. In a final amendment to the answer the defendant alleged, “that the said W. B. Butts pointed out and described all the buildings and plant purchased from him by defendant as being on the land described in said bond for title; that the contract and agreement made and entered into by and between the defendant and the said W. B. Butts including an inventory of the property, all of which is attached, and the entire contract was taken over by the plaintiff in this case, the Bank of Bullochville, and the said Butts’ agreement and contract including said inventory, and all of said representations made by said Butts were known, assumed, and taken over by said bank when and at the same time said bond for title was executed by said bank to said defendant; and the said Butts and the said bank were acting in concert and together in the making and executing said bond from the bank to said defendant, and each well knew the acts and conduct of the other and participated in and ratified all of said representations, acts, and conduct as set forth in defendant’s answer and amendment thereto, and both the said Butts and the said bank well knew that the said bank could not make this defendant good and sufficient title to all the property that defendant was put in possession of by plaintiff under its said bond for title.” The contract and inventory referred to as being attached to the amendment quoted above do not appear from the record in this court to have been so attached.

While the answer as first drawn alleged that the defendant purchased lots 5 and 6 and was not in possession nor able to obtain possession of lot 5, it appeared from allegations made by amendment that the defendant, being in possession of lots 6 and 7, was not complaining of his want of possession of lot 5, and that he was in peaceful possession of all of the property which he claimed the plaintiff was obligated to convey to him, including all buildings and appurtenances.

There is no contention that the defendant, with the excep[474]*474tion of the houses, the pipe line, and the concrete tank (all of these, except where otherwise stated, to be hereinafter referred to as houses or buildings), failed to acquire all of the property that he bargained for. The complaint is that the houses, or a part of them, which the plaintiff contracted to. convey to the defendant should, according to representations, have been situated on lots •6 and 7, whereas they were located on lands belonging to other persons, and for that reason plaintiff can not make good title thereto. In other words, the answer

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
137 S.E. 642, 36 Ga. App. 470, 1927 Ga. App. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-of-bullochville-v-riehle-gactapp-1927.