Forsyth Manufacturing Co. v. Castlen

37 S.E. 485, 112 Ga. 199, 1900 Ga. LEXIS 99
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedNovember 26, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by89 cases

This text of 37 S.E. 485 (Forsyth Manufacturing Co. v. Castlen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Forsyth Manufacturing Co. v. Castlen, 37 S.E. 485, 112 Ga. 199, 1900 Ga. LEXIS 99 (Ga. 1900).

Opinion

Cobb, J.

Castlen brought suit against the Forsyth Manufacturing Company upon a contract of which the following is a copy: “ This agreement made and entered into this the 25th day of April, 1898, by and between the Forsyth Manufacturing Company of the first part, and A. W. Castlen of the second part, both of the county of Monroe and the State of Georgia, witnesseth: that the party of the first part hereby agrees to pay the party of the second part six cents per pound for one hundred and fifty bales of lint-cotton to be delivered at the warehouse of said Forsyth Manufacturing Company on the Central Railroad just above Forsyth, in good merchantable order, at times below set forth. The party of the second part hereby agrees to deliver at the place above designated one hundred and fifty bales of lint-cotton, said cotton to be delivered to the Forsyth Manufacturing Company as follows: fifty bales in September, fifty bales in October, and fifty bales in November, 1898, at the place above set forth, and in good merchantable order, all bales to weigh more than 450 pounds each; and should the party of the second part fail or refuse to furnish the full amount of fifty bales each month as above set forth, then the second party forfeits one half cent per pound for each pound not delivered at end of each month of the fifty bales.” This contract was signed by both parties [201]*201therein mentioned. At the trial it appeared that Castlen was a cotton-planter, that this fact was known, to the president of the defendant company, and that at the date the contract was entered into Castlen had upon his land cotton planted and growing. It also appeared that Castlen had delivered to the defendant one hundred bales of cotton, which were raised upon his place, and which were received by the defendant and paid for under the contract. Six bales raised on the plaintiff’s place were delivered and received in due time, but have never been paid for. The plaintiff tendered to the defendant, in November, a sufficient number of bales to complete the contract; but the defendant company refused to receive and pay for these bales, on the ground that they were not raised upon the land of Castlen. This action is brought to recover for the six bales of cotton which were received and not paid for, and for damages on account of the failure to receive and pay for the number of bales tendered in November which were necessary to complete the contract. The jury under the charge of the court returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. The defendant made a motion for a new trial, which was overruled. The case is here upon a bill of exceptions assigning error upon the decision of the judge overruling a demurrer to the petition, and upon the judgment refusing to grant a new trial.

1. As a general rule a person who owns property has the right to dispose of it to another. When the one who has the right of property is in actual possession, this right of disposition is subject to few restrictions. In order to make a complete sale of property whereby the title would pass from the seller to the buyer, it is necessary that the thing which is the subject of the sale should have an actual or potential existence at the date of the sale. It has been held that a mortgage upon a crop of cotton is valid, if at the date-of the mortgage the cotton be planted and growing. Crine v. Tifts, 65 Ga. 644; Stephens v. Tucker, 55 Ga. 543. See also Jones v. Richardson, 10 Met. (Mass.) 488; Van Hoozer v. Cory, 34 Barb. 9. On the other hand, it has been held that a sale of a certain number of bales of cotton of a crop of a given year, made before the seed were planted, passed' no title to the vendee, for the reason that nothing can be the subject of bargain and sale which has no actual or potential existence at the date of the sale, .and until the crop is actually growing, or at least until the seed are planted, the crop can not be [202]*202said to have even a potential existence. Noyes v. Jenkins, 55 Ga. 586. See also Redd v. Burrus, 58 Ga. 574; Huntington v. Chisholm, 61 Ga. 270; Wheeler v. Wheeler, 2 Met. (Ky.) 474; Low v. Pew, 108 Mass. 347, s. c. 11 Am. Rep. 357. If a contract provides for the delivery by one party to another of that which is not only not in the possession of the person contracting to sell but which has no existence, either actual or potential, while the contract can not be upheld as a sale, the parties to the same may be bound by the-terms thereof as constituting an executory agreement to sell. While there can be no sale of an article which is not in existence, it is legally possible for one to enter into an executory contract to sell such an article in the future when it does come into existence. 2 Kent’s Com. (14th ed.) *468 et seq., *492 (note). See also Newmark, Sales,. § 68, p. 93. The right to enter into a contract for the sale of a thing, which was to come into existence in the future was recognized by the civil law. 1 Domat’s Civil Law (Cushing’s ed.), § 310; McKeldey’sRoman Law, § 40 O. The rule of the civil law, that future things might-be the subject of an obligation, was, however, subject to the exception which prohibited “dealers from buying corn, or hay, before the harvest, wool before the shearing, &c.,” and such contracts were declared to be void. 1 Pothier, Obligations, top p. 170. The distinction between a contract for the sale of goods and an executory agreement for future delivery is clearly drawn in cases where the question arose as to whether contracts of the latter character were within the 17th section of the statute of frauds. It has been held that contracts for the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise are not excluded from the operation of tins section of the statute merely because they are ex-ecutory. And also that contracts for the sale of goods not in esse at the time, and of a peculiar character so as to be unsuited to the-general market, to be made by the work and labor and with the material of the vendor at the instance of the purchaser, are not-within the section. Cason v. Cheeley, 6. Ga. 554. See also Benj. Sales (7th Am. (Bennett’s) ed.), § 92 et seq.

The right of a person to enter into a contract to deliver property not in his possession, relying upon making a future purchase in time to fulfill his undertaking, was doubted by Lord Tenterden (then Chief Justice Abbott) in, Lorymer v. Smith, 8 E. C. L. 1, where he took occasion to say that it was a mode, of dealing not to' be encouraged. That case involved a contract for the sale of wheat.. [203]*203In Bryan v. Lewis, 21 E. C. L. 775, which, involved a contract for the future delivery of nutmegs, where the question of the validity of such a contract was directly before the court, Lord Tenterden adhered to the opinion expressed in Lorymer ¶. Smith, and made a direct ruling to the effect, that, “ If a man sells goods to be delivered on a future day, and neither has the goods at the time, nor has entered into any prior contract to buy them, nor has any reasonable expectation of receiving them by consignment, but means to go into the market and buy the goods which he has contracted to deliver, he can not maintain an action for damages for non-per.formance of the contract.” Mr. Tiedeman, in his work on Sales, §302, says: “If the common-law offense of regrating were still recognized in the criminal law, all contracts for future delivery may be open to serious objection.” See also Tiedeman’s Lim.

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Bluebook (online)
37 S.E. 485, 112 Ga. 199, 1900 Ga. LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/forsyth-manufacturing-co-v-castlen-ga-1900.