Macon & Augusta Railroad v. Garrard

54 Ga. 327
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 15, 1875
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 54 Ga. 327 (Macon & Augusta Railroad v. Garrard) 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
Macon & Augusta Railroad v. Garrard, 54 Ga. 327 (Ga. 1875).

Opinion

Trippe, Judge.

1. For the purpose of determining this case, it matters not whether the contract- between the plaintiff and defendant was entire or severable. When the first suit was brought the whole demand or debt was due. If so, it was incapable of division for the purpose of bringing separate suits therefor. Section 2939 of the Code provides “if a contract be entire-but one suit can be maintained for a breach thereof; but if it be severable, or if the breaches occur at successive periods in an entire contract, (as where money is to be paid by installments,) an action will lie for each breach; but all the breaches occurring up to the commencement of the action must be included therein.” Here it is not denied that the whole claim, all that was included in the first suit and judgment, as well as what is now alleged was not, was due when that suit was commenced. Either an entire breach of the whole contract, or every breach that is complained of under that contract, had then occurred. The meaning of the Code is that there cannot be subsequent actions for breaches which have already occurred, though they were not included in the first suit. This construction was recognized as the proper one in 45 [329]*329Georgia, 155, and there are numerous decisions holding that it is the established rule of law, independent of any statute. The question is fully discussed and many authorities cited in 7 Robertson’s Practice, 175, et seq., sustaining the ruling we make. It is true there are some contrary decisions, but the plain meaning of the section of the Code quoted is sufficient to sustain our judgment.

2. It is not sufficient to overturn this rule of law, for the plaintiff to reply to a plea of former recovery, that when the first suit was brought he did not know the whole amount of his elai'tn — in this case, how many cross-ties he had in. fact furnished — where that ignorance was. from his own fault and negligence. Equity would not relieve in such a case ; that is, where the party, by reasonable diligence, could have had knowledge of the truth : Code, section 3126. And the principle goes still further. Even ignorance of a fact known to the opposite party will not justify an interference, if there has been no misplaced confidence,'nor misrepresentation, nor other.fraudulent act: Ibid. Here the evidence shows that the plaintiff below was all the while in full possession of all the means of ascertaining the true facts and what his entire claim was. He had twice moved in the matter; once in making a settlement with his debtor. Not satisfied with that, he brought one suit. On a second investigation, which he was legally competent to assert, a judgment was had— that judgpent'was pleadable in bar against a second suit for •a breach of the same contract, if that breach had occurred when the- first suit was brought. There is no principle in equity that will relieve him from the rule, under the evidence, in this case. We therefore are of opinion that the verdict was what the evidence required the jury to render, and that' there was error in granting a new trial.

Judgment reversed.

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

Related

Singer v. Steven Kokes, Inc.
384 A.2d 463 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 1978)
World Mutual Health & Accident Insurance v. Thurmond
145 S.E.2d 252 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1965)
Missouri State Life Insurance v. Pilcher
175 S.E. 586 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1934)
Chappell v. F. A. D. Andrea Inc.
171 S.E. 582 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1933)
Badger v. Badger
254 P. 784 (Utah Supreme Court, 1927)
Jones v. Schacter
114 S.E. 59 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1922)
Jones v. Word & Mauldin
99 S.E. 230 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1919)
Vineseck v. Great Northern Railway Co.
161 N.W. 494 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1917)
Cohn & Son v. Farkas
87 S.E. 842 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1916)
Johnson v. Klassett
72 S.E. 174 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1911)
Thompson v. McDonald
10 S.E. 448 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1889)
Evans v. Collier
4 S.E. 266 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1887)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
54 Ga. 327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/macon-augusta-railroad-v-garrard-ga-1875.