McCall v. Hunter, Pearce & Battey

70 S.E. 59, 8 Ga. App. 612, 1911 Ga. App. LEXIS 75
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided January 24, 1911·No. 2876·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

Russell, J.

The only question in this case is whether the evidence in behalf of the plaintiff authorizes the inference that the cotton sold by' him was sold for cash, or whether the transaction was one involving the features of a sale upon credit. At first glance we were inclined to the opinion that the court below had ruled properly in awarding a nonsuit, because of the evidence in the record that the plaintiff had accepted a due bill for the amount of the purchaser’s indebtedness to him. However, upon a review of the testimony as a whole, and especially in view of the rulings in Flannery v. Harley, 117 Ga. 483 (43 S. E. 765), National Bank v. Augusta Cotton Co., 104 Ga. 403 (30 S. E. 888), and Charleston Ry. Co. v. Pope, 122 Ga. 579 (50 S. E. 374), we are constrained to hold that the trial judge erred at least in not submitting to the jury the question as to whether the sale was for cash or on time. Indeed, the Supreme Court has decided adversely to the contentions of the learned counsel for defendants on every proposition advanced in their brief.

There is such a similarity between the facts of the case at bar and those of the Harley case as really to leave little room for discussion of any of the points here involved. As was said by Justice Lamar in Charleston Ry. Co. v. Pope, supra, “Where the cash is paid there is no occasion to rely upon the Civil Code, § 3546. The section is applicable only where the agreement to pay cash is not [615] complied with, by the vendee. Cotton is bulky. > After the terms of sale have been agreed upon, it is necessary that there should be sampling, grading, weighing, and marking before there can be delivery, and delivery itself requires time. Shall a check be given or the cash be paid before delivery, at the instant the last bale is delivered, or in the usual.course of business? The statute answers this question. It indicates that if the sale was to be for cash, the seller did not lose his title because he surrendered possession before he received the purchase-money.” If the transaction involved in the case before us does not come within the purview of the code section cited above (Civil Code of 1895, § 3546), it would seem that it would be hard to imagine a ease in which that provision of our law would be applicable. The plaintiff in the present case testified that he sold the cotton on a cash sale. It is true that he was told he would not get the money upon the instant, and it seems to have been understood that payment would be made by a draft (whether upon a bank or upon some firm or individual the record does not disclose), and the conclusion of the agreement was that instead of accepting a sight draft (which would not have been payment until the draft itself was paid), the seller merely agreed to make the purchaser his agent to go to-Savannah and bring back the money. It can not be questioned that the character of the negotiation at the outset was a sale for cash. The only question is whether any subsequent stipulation, or condition changed the character of the sale from a cash sale to one in which there entered as a part of the transaction the element of time. It is true that one witness for the plaintiff testified that there was some time in it, — the time which Mr. Purvis, the purchaser of the cotton, said would be necessary to enable him to go to Savannah and return with the money. Personally we might be in some doubt as to this feature of the case, but in view of the ruling in Flannery v. Harley, supra, the question is easily solved. The identical question was presented in that case, and the Supreme Court held the sale to be for cash, although, under the express terms of the contract, payment of the cash was not to be made until several days after the delivery of the cotton. From the various rulings of the Supreme Court upon this question, and especially when we consider the rationale of the rule as expounded by Justice Lamar in Charleston Ry. Co. v. Pope, supra, it is plain [616] that a sale for cash is not restricted to those transactions in which the cash is to be paid upon the instant, or upon delivery of the cotton, but the term “sale for cash” includes all of those transactions in which the seller of the cotton parts with its possession upon the mutual agreement that the transaction is for a cash consideration, which is to be paid, not at a fixed and definite date agreed upon as one of the conditions precedent to the contract, but as soon as the purchaser may have been enabled, by such means as the seller will permit h’im to do so, to take the necessary steps to produce the currency exactly requisite to close the transaction and complete the purchase. Until this is done, our statute declares that the title t-o the cotton remains in the seller, and is not subject to be divested even by an innocent purchaser.

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McCall v. Hunter, Pearce & Battey, 70 S.E. 59, 8 Ga. App. 612, 1911 Ga. App. LEXIS 75 (Ga. Ct. App. 1911).

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