Gilford v. Green

125 S.E. 80, 33 Ga. App. 1, 1924 Ga. App. LEXIS 672
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 16, 1924
Docket15647
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 125 S.E. 80 (Gilford v. Green) 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
Gilford v. Green, 125 S.E. 80, 33 Ga. App. 1, 1924 Ga. App. LEXIS 672 (Ga. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

Bell, J.

Dollie F. Green brought suit against D. C. and Annie Gilford upon notes. The petition alleged, that on March 24, 1919, petitioner entered into a written contract whereby she agreed to sell", and the défendants agreed to buy, a certain tract of land for the consideration of $1100. The contract was attached to the petition, and recited the payment of $50 in cash and the execution by the defendants of 110 promissory notes for $10 each, the first note to become due on May 22, 1919, and one note to mature on the 22d day of each month thereafter until the entire series should be paid. It was stipulated in the contract that “upon the failure to pay three notes, the whole debt becomes due.” The .vendor was bound by the instrument to execute titles on payment of all the notes. The petition, further alleged, that upon the lot at the time of the sale there was a - residence which the plaintiff insured to protect her own interest, her security being otherwise insufficient, and that the residence was subsequently destroyed by fire. Petitioner, on May 1, 1922, collected $600, the amount of the insurance, from-which, after deducting $18 paid for the premium, there remained the sum of $582, which the petition alleged “should be credited as a payment as of the date of May 1, 1922.” It was further alleged that immediately after the contract of sale the defendants went into possession of the property, and that they paid 23 of the 11Ó notes as they became due; “since which time defendants fail and refuse to pay any of the unpaid 87 notes, all of which are now in default and are payable in full, because defendants defaulted in the payment of as many as three notes, this maturing all of them as provided in the contract.” The prayer was, to recover the amount of the 87 unpaid notes, less a credit of $582, as of the date of May 1, 1922. There was no accelerating clause in any of the notes; this appeared, only in the sales contract or bond for title.

The defendant filed a plea- in abatement as follows: “1st. That according tó the terms of the petition filed in this case, the amount of $600 collected by the plaintiff should be applied, and was applied, to the payment of-the promissory.notes-sued upon, and therefore it appears that all notes that would have matured up to-'the [3]*3date of the filing of the petition have been paid, and that none of the notes sued upon were, at the time of the filing of the petition, due and payable. 2d. The notes sued upon are not due, and the action brought is premature. 3d. The notes sued upon, if they be a valid and binding obligation at all, will not become due. and payable until July 22, 1926.”

The effect of the answer was to admit that none of the 87 notes had been paid, but it was denied that there had been any default. Construing the answer as a whole, it appears, however, that the insistence on the part of the defendant that there had been no default was based solely upon the facts that the plaintifE had collected the insurance, amounting to more than the sum represented by the notes mature by their face at the time of its collection, and the further facts alleged in the answer, as follows: 5th. That the building on the said premises and which was insured was the main consideration of the trade, the lot being of very slight value. 6th. That when the said insurance was collected as mentioned in plaintiff’s petition it became necessary for defendants to indorse the check given in payment of the said insurance, and defendants so indorsed said check and delivered the same to plaintiff, and thus permitted her to collect the insurance, upon the understanding and agreement with plaintiff that she would within a reasonable time replace the said building on said premises, and this she has totally failed and refused to do, so that defendants have been forced to procure and provide for themselves continuously, since the burning of the said building, another home. 7th. By reason of the foregoing the plaintifE rescinded the contract of purchase and sale, but nevertheless wrongfully retains all of the benefits of the contract, including all payments made by the defendants, their notes, the insurance-money collected, and the titl^ to the property. 8th. Defendants have paid to plaintiff $50 cash at the time of the trade, $230 in notes as they matured, besides the interest on said notes, and have paid the taxes accruing on the property. The total amount of principal and interest paid by the defendants to the plaintifE (including revenue stamps of $2.20) is $297.50. The defendants prayed judgment against the plaintiffs for this amount.-

-The court, on demurrer, struck the plea in abatement and also the answer, and rendered judgment for the plaintifE. The defend■ants excepted.

[4]*4A contract providing that on default as to payment of one or more of a series of installment notes the remaining notes of the series shall become due and payable operates to mature the entire debt upon the default, and not merely to give the creditor an option whether to treat the whole debt as due or not. The debtor owes the creditor the duty of paying the entire amount at once, and the partial performance of this obligation by the immediate payment of a part of the aggregate debt thus due would not in any wise affect the existing maturity of the whole, although such payment amounted to more than would have been due but for the default. The mere acceptance of such part payment would in no sense amount to a waiver of the prior default or undo the maturity of the remainder of the indebtedness and set it forward to the dates originally fixed therefor respectively in the remaining unpaid notes. Sneed v. Wiggins, 3 Ga. 94; Kilcrease v. Johnson, 85 Ga. 600 (3) (11 S. E. 870); Cooper v. Ricketson, 14 Ga. App. 63 (1) (80 S. E. 217); Mayor &c. of Griffin v. City Bank, 58 Ga. 584 (1); Alexander v. Chipstead, 152 Ga. 851 (4), 861 (111 S. E. 552).

The installment notes and the sales contract, or bond for title, in this case constitute but one contract. Horne v. Evans, 31 Ga. App. 370 (2) (120 S. E. 787). The accelerating clause was contained only in the bond for title. According to the weight of authority, the stipulation in. that writing alone had the effect of fixing a contingency the happening of which matured the notes. Smith v. Champion, 102 Ga. 92 (3) (29 S. E. 160); San Antonio Association v. Stewart, 94 Texas 441 (1) (2) (61 S. E. 386); Voris v. Ferrell, 57 Ind. App. 1 (3) (103 N. E. 122); Miles v. Hamilton, 106 Kan. 804 (1) (189 Pac. 926, 19 A. L. R. 276); Parker v. Olliver, 106 Ala. 549 (1) (18 So. 40); Spesard v. Spesard, 75 Kan. 87 (3, 4) (88 Pac. 576); Snyder v. Miller, 71 Kan. 410 (69 L. R. A. 250, 114 Am. St. Rep. 489); 17 R. C. L. 771, § 139. There is some authority to the contrary, however, upon the idea that, in such a case, the provisions as to maturity contained in the notes being in conflict with the stipulation in the other writing, all should be construed together as parts of a single contract, and effect given to each. Thus, in those jurisdictions where, in such circumstances, the accelerating clause is considered not effective to mature the notes themselves, it is generally held that the creditor, upon the happening of the contingency, may [5]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Philyaw v. Fulton National Bank
227 S.E.2d 811 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1976)
Barnwell v. Hanson
57 S.E.2d 348 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1950)
Evans v. Brown
27 S.E.2d 300 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1943)
Country Club of Portsmouth, Inc. v. Wilkins
186 S.E. 23 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1936)
Cocke v. Bank of Dawson
180 S.E. 711 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1935)
Tate v. Atlanta Joint Stock Land Bank
180 S.E. 112 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1935)
Fireman's Fund Insurance v. Davis
155 S.E. 105 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1930)
Tiedeman Mortgage & Finance Co. v. Carlson
152 S.E. 909 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1930)
Matthews v. Collier
142 S.E. 215 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1928)
McRae v. Federal Land Bank
135 S.E. 112 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1926)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
125 S.E. 80, 33 Ga. App. 1, 1924 Ga. App. LEXIS 672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gilford-v-green-gactapp-1924.