May v. Sorrell

111 S.E. 810, 153 Ga. 47, 1922 Ga. LEXIS 13
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 28, 1922
DocketNo. 2536
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 111 S.E. 810 (May v. Sorrell) 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
May v. Sorrell, 111 S.E. 810, 153 Ga. 47, 1922 Ga. LEXIS 13 (Ga. 1922).

Opinions

Hines, J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.)

1, 2. The first and second headnotes do not require any elaboration. In view of the rulings therein made, the only thing left for the determination of the court is whether the court below erred in overruling the plaintiff’s motion for a new trial.

3. Counsel for the plaintiff insist very earnestly that the judgment of the court below, overruling the motion for new trial, should be reversed on the general grounds. It is urged that this court, when the case was here before (May v. Sorrell, 149 Ga. 610, 101 S. E. 535), held that the bond for title under which Sorrell claims was void for lack of sufficient description; that therefore the same could not be relied upon as color of title under which prescriptive title could be acquired by possession for seven years; that for this reason the defendant would have to establish a title by prescription resulting from possession of this land for twenty years; and that he wholly failed to establish such title by prescription, as the land in question was in a swamp, wild and uncultivated. It is insisted that the defendant could only defend, under these circumstances, by showing such possession for twenty years as would ripen into a prescriptive title; and that, having failed to do so, a new trial should be granted in this case.

At the time Sorrell bought from Bonus Turner, the paper title to all that part of lot 389 in the ninth district of Colquitt county, north of Bear creek, was in Bonus Turner, under a deed to him from the plaintiff. While the title was thus in Turner, Sorrell claims to have bought these lands, and that he paid Turner therefor in full. This was before the plaintiff undertook to have Turner correct the alleged mistake in the deed by which the plaintiff conveyed to Turner the premises in dispute. When Sorrell bought from Turner, and, as he alleges, paid Turner in full for the tract of land embraced in the deed from May to Turner, which deed embraces the premises_in dispute, the title was in Turner. As both [53]*53parties claimed under a common grantor, it was not necessary for Sorrell to show title back of such common grantor. Sorrell set up the purchase of the premises in dispute from Turner, with full payment of the purchase-money. lie prayed that Turner be required by the decree of the court to specifically perform the contract by which he sold the premises in dispute to him.

Full payment of the purchase-money alone, accepted by the vendor, would be sufficient part performance to justify a decree requiring Turner to convey this land to Sorrell. Civil Code, § 4634. Furthermore, Sorrell, being the defendant, could successfully defend by showing the full payment of the purchase-money. Payment in full of the purchase-money would give him such title as would enable him to defend in this case against the attack made upon him by the plaintiff;. Payment in full of the purchase-money, in this State) gives to the purchaser a perfect equity, which is a good title even at law, and is sufficient to support or defeat an action of ejectment. Pitts v. McWhorter, 3 Ga. 5 (46 Am. D. 405); Peterson v. Orr, 12 Ga. 464 (58 Am. D. 484); Dudley v. Bradshaw, 29 Ga. 17, 25; Temples v. Temples, 70 Ga. 480, 483; Glover v. Stamps, 73 Ga. 209 (54 Am. R. 870); Howell v. Ellsberry, 79 Ga. 475 (5 S. E. 96); Dodge v. Spiers, 85 Ga. 585 (11 S. E. 610).

The fact that the deed from May to Turner describes the land as containing forty acres, more or less, when the land within the boundaries of this deed amounts to ninety-two acres, will not defeat the claim of Sorrell to all the land within these boundaries, if he purchased the same from Turner and paid therefor. When land is conveyed by metes and bounds, whether there be more or less than the quantity named in the deed, the purchaser obtains the whole of it. Benton v. Horsley, 71 Ga. 619. So Turner obtained all the land within the boundaries given in the deed from May to him, and when Sorrell bought the tract from Turner, and paid him therefor, be obtained the whole of the tract, although it contained much more land than the quantity named in this deed. If the defendant could defeat an action of ejectment by showing a perfect equity, growing out of the payment of the purchase-money in full, he can certainly, in a court of equity, rely upon such perfect equity to defeat an action to enjoin him from interfering with the plaintiff, who proposes to sell the timber growing on the premises in dispute. So we can not agree with the contention of counsel [54]*54for the plaintiff that a reversal is demanded upon the general grounds of the motion for a new trial.

4. The first and third grounds of the amendment to the motion for new trial can be considered together. In the first ground it is alleged that the court erred in requiring J. C. May, on cross-examination, to testify that at the time he sold the land to Turner he did not know what the timber thereon was worth, as there was no demand for it, as it could only be used for splitting rails and building houses; that in those dajrs a man never went into the swamp to get timber; that such timber was then practically worthless, but swamp timber is now in demand and is worth considerable money. The objection to the admission of this testimony was that it did not illustrate any issue in the case, the only issue being whether Sorrell or May owns this land. The court admitted this testimony to illustrate the intention of the parties and the circumstances when May sold to Turner, and latter sold to Sorrell.

In the third ground the plaintiff moved to rule out this testi-' mony upon the ground that it was irrelevant, and the court refused to rule it out, for the same reasons that he admitted it.

The defendant was seeking specific performance of his contract to purchase from Turner. Inadequacy of price may justify a court in refusing to decree specific performance. Civil Code, § 4637. It further throws light upon the question whether May sold Turner all the land north of Bear creek. Therefore the value of these swamp lands and the timber thereon at the time May sold to Turner, and Turner to Sorrell, was relevant and important.

5. In the second ground of the amended motion it is complained that the court erred in refusing to permit E. W. McCranie to testify that the negroes, John and Bonus Turner, had done nothing to any one to cause them to receive such treatment as they did when they were cut, shot, and run off from their home, “ in order to get their property.” In the fifth ground it is complained that the court erred in refusing to permit John Turner, a witness for the plaintiff, to testify that their presence in the community in which they lived was objectionable to the white people, and that parties came to their houses and, without any cause, cut, shot, and beat them and ran them off so as to get their property. The plaintiff alleges that this testimony was admissible to shed light on the conduct of Sorrell,'to disprove his claim of bona tides in [55]*55acquiring this property, and to tend to show that he had no title to the same. It is claimed that this testimony was admissible to show that whatever paper title Sorrell had to the land in dispute was a forgery.

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Bluebook (online)
111 S.E. 810, 153 Ga. 47, 1922 Ga. LEXIS 13, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/may-v-sorrell-ga-1922.