Long v. Scanlan

31 S.E. 436, 105 Ga. 424, 1898 Ga. LEXIS 529
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJuly 27, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 31 S.E. 436 (Long v. Scanlan) 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
Long v. Scanlan, 31 S.E. 436, 105 Ga. 424, 1898 Ga. LEXIS 529 (Ga. 1898).

Opinion

Simmons, C. J.

1. The defendant in the court below lost his case there, and made a motion for a new trial. This motion con[425]*425tained several grounds which, were approved by the trial judge. Subsequently, many additional grounds were added by way of' amendment to the original motion. These grounds were not approved, either expressly or by implication. They had written upon them only the word allowed,” and whether that was written by the judge or by counsel does not appear. This entry upon them meant, in our opinion, nothing more than that counsel’s request to file additional grounds as an amendment was granted. A trial judge may pass upon grounds of a motion for new trial without approving them in the first instance. If, however, he overrules the motion and the case is brought here, it is necessary, before this court can consider the grounds, that they have the express approval of the trial judge and that the fact of his approval affirmatively appear. Had this motion been granted by the trial judge and the ease been brought here by the plaintiff below, alleging error in granting the motion, the granting of the motion would have been such a verification of the grounds that they could be considered here. The granting of the motion on these grounds verifies their truth. Stephens v. Woolbright, 60 Ga. 322; Flournoy, Hatcher & Co. v. Wardlaw, 67 Ga. 378; Skinner v. Roberts, 92 Ga. 366. The grounds of the motion in the present case which were added as an amendment do not show that they were approved by the trial judge, nor is there any recital in the bill of exceptions that they were so approved. They therefore can not be considered.

2. Mrs. Scanlan brought suit against Long, alleging in her petition that she had turned over to him a certain amount of personal property for which he agreed to give her a home and to support her during her life; that, in pursuance of this agreement, she went to Long’s house and remained there a certain length of time, when he violated his contract by refusing to support her or to allow her to live in his house. She therefore sought damages for the breach of the contract. There were also other allegations which it is not necessary for the purposes of this decision to mention. Long, in his answer, denied most of the allegations of the petition, especially denying that any contract was made between him and plaintiff as alleged, and filed a special plea of accord and satisfaction. That plea al[426]*426leged in substance that he had agreed, subsequently to the time of the alleged contract upon which she sued, to let plaintiff live in a certain house on his farm for and during her life and to pay her twenty-five dollars, in full settlement of her claims against him; that she agreed in writing to this, received the money and went into possession of the house, and that the accord was therefore completely executed. He introduced in evidence a writing such as described, signed by Mrs. Scanlan. The evidence introduced by Mrs. Scanlan tended to show that she did not remember signing a paper containing such terms as those of the instrument relied upon by Long; that if the paper she signed contained such terms, she had not understood it at the time of signing, because of her crazed and feeble condition; that the terms of the paper, which were in part executory, had never been fully performed by Long; that, while he had allowed her to move into a house on his farm, he shortly thereafter, by his conduct, compelled her to leave it, and she had not resided there since. If this contention of hers was true, we think it was a good reply to the plea of accord and satisfaction. The agreement on Long’s part to allow her to live in the house during her life was not fully performed. When a plea of accord and satisfaction is filed by a defendant, he must show full performance of its terms by himself and a full acceptance by the plaintiff. Unless he show this, the accord is no bar to a suit upon the original contract or claim. “Interest reipublicse ut sit finis litium. Accord executed is satisfaction; accord executory is only substituting one cause of action in the room of another, which might go on to any extent.” Lord Chief Justice Eyre in Lynn v. Bruce, 2 H. Black. 317. “ Every accord ought to be full, perfect, and complete; for if divers things are to be performed by the accord, the performance of part is not sufficient, but all ought to be performed. . . If the thing be to be performed at a day to come, tender and refusal is not sufficient, without actual satisfaction and acceptance.” Peytoe’s case, 9 Coke, 79b (ed. 1826, vol. 5, p. 145). To be good, the accord must be fully executed: Russell v. Lytle, 6 Wend. 390, 22 Am. Dec. 537; Brooklyn Bank v. De Grauw, 23 Wend. 342, 35 Am. Dec. 569; Hearn v. Kiehl, 38 Pa. St. 147, 80 Am. Dec. 472; [427]*427Jones v. Fennimore, 1 G. Greene (Iowa), 134; Fentress v. Marble, 2 G. Greene, 553; Clark v. Dinsmore, 5 N. H. 136; Ballard v. Noaks, 2 Ark. 45; execution of part and tender of performance of residue is not sufficient: Kromer v. Heim, 75 N. Y. 574, 31 Am. Rep. 491, and cases cited; Frost v. Johnson, 8 Ohio, 393; 3 Black. Com. 15; 5 Lawson, Rights, Rem. & Pr. §§ 2567, 2568. See also Civil Code, §§ 3732, 3735; Coit v. Houston, 3 Johns. Cas. 243, 256. “ As long as the accord is executory, although it is partially performed, the original cause of action is not extinguished.” Brunswick & W. Ry. Co. v. Clem, 80 Ga. 534. The evidence in the present case was sufficient to authorize a finding that the original contract set up by the plaintiff was in fact agreed upon by the parties, and the jury so found. The plaintiff thus made out her case, and it was for the defendant to make out his defense, — accord and satisfaction. While the evidence shows that Mrs. Scanlan moved into the house on defendant’s farm, it also shows that Long, by his conduct, compelled her to leave it. He thus violated the new agreement which he afterward relied upon as a satisfaction of the former one. He can not rely upon an unexecuted accord as a bar to the plaintiff’s action; and this is certainly true where he has himself failed and refused to perform the accord.

The point is made that Mrs. Scanlan could not rescind the written agreement without restoring the status; that, whether or not she knew the terms of that agreement, she at least knew that she had signed it and had received twenty-five dollars under it, and that she should have paid back that amount to Long or offered to do so; that until she had done so, she could not avoid the contract under -which she had received the money. This we think is not true. The accord, not being fully executed, was no bar to her suit, and the portion which had been performed could be effectual not as a bar but only as a satisfaction pro tanto. It is held, in the case of Brunswick & W. Ry. Co. v. Clem, supra, that “ A mere accord, though partly performed or executed, does not extinguish the original right; the part execution may be pleaded as satisfaction pro tanto.” That case is very similar to the present, and the decision there controlling here, as will appear from the following portion of the opinion of Bleckley, C. [428]

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Bluebook (online)
31 S.E. 436, 105 Ga. 424, 1898 Ga. LEXIS 529, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-v-scanlan-ga-1898.