Piedmont Life Insurance Co. v. Bell

119 S.E.2d 63, 103 Ga. App. 225, 1961 Ga. App. LEXIS 913
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 14, 1961
Docket38540, 38568
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 119 S.E.2d 63 (Piedmont Life Insurance Co. v. Bell) 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
Piedmont Life Insurance Co. v. Bell, 119 S.E.2d 63, 103 Ga. App. 225, 1961 Ga. App. LEXIS 913 (Ga. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinions

Bell, Judge.

The defendant contends that the trial court erred in striking its defensive plea of the statute of frauds from the answer as pleaded in this language: “21. Further answering said petition, and by way of special plea, the defendant avers that the alleged cause of action in the plaintiff’s petition rests upon an agreement in parol; that said alleged agreement could not be performed within one year; and that, therefore, said cause of action is barred by the statute of frauds.”

In McDougald v. Banks, 13 Ga. 451, the Supreme Court held that it is necessary' to plead the appropriate section of the statute of frauds unless the pleadings of the plaintiff show that his case is not within the exceptions to the statute. Numerous cases since have stated or held that the statute of frauds must be pleaded or there must be a special plea to that effect or some similar language. See Hotel Candler, Inc. v. Candler, 198 Ga. 339, 346 (31 S. E. 2d 693); Johnson v. Latimer, 71 Ga. 470.

In Wolf v. Arant, 88 Ga. App. 568, 571 (77 S. E. 2d 116), the defendant interposed a general demurrer to the petition which in essence asserted that the promise or contract alleged in the petition was never reduced to writing “within the meaning of the statute for the prevention of frauds, as codified in paragraphs 20-401 et seq. of the Code of Georgia.” The demurrer, ap[228]*228parently treated as a special demurrer, was held to be without merit in that it was incomplete and did not specify which provision of the statute of frauds required the contract to be in writing. In any event, the Wolf case is distinguishable from this one, since the plea here of the statute of frauds was made in the defendant’s answer and not by demurrer.

From these cases, and numerous others, it appears that, although there is no statutory requirement for it, the statute of frauds must be raised by an affirmative plea, which must set forth the section of the statute relied upon, or there must be a timely motion for nonsuit, or objection to- the testimony must be made so- as to invoke a ruling in the trial court on the statute.

While it is to- be noted that the paragraph of the defendant’s answer under consideration which pleads the statute of frauds does not plead the -section of the statute relied upon verbatim, it does by indirection clearly point to- the requirement of the statute of frauds relating to contracts not to be performed in one year. Further, the plea in the answer which raises the statute of frauds refers to the allegation that the contract was oral, that it could not be performed within one year, and was, therefore, within the statute.

While it appears from the cases that the defendant must raise the defense of the statute of frauds by an affirmative plea, there are no cases holding that the plea may not be made in the answer. On the contrary, there- is authority that a plea in bar, of which the statute of frauds is one, may be contained in the answer. Galloway v. Merrill, 213 Ga. 633, 634 (3) (100 S. E. 2d 443); and see Mendel v. Miller & Sons, 134 Ga. 610 (1) (68 S. E. 430).

Under these circumstances we are constrained to accept as the just view that the defendant here has the right to have the plea of the statute of frauds remain in the case, even though there is an allegation in the petition which, if proved, would take the case out of the statute, for if there is a failure to- prove the allegation, the defendant then has the right to judgment because of the statute. Failure to plead the -statute is to waive it, since it is a plea in the nature of personal privilege, of which one can avail himself o-r not as one wishes. Draper-Moore & Co. v. Macon [229]*229Dry Goods Co., 103 Ga. 661 (30 S. E. 566, 68 Am. St. Rep. 136); Armour v. Ross, 110 Ga. 403, 413 (35 S. E. 787); 3 Williston on Contracts, 3d ed., 718, § 527.

Accordingly, we think that this is a sufficient plea to raise the issue, and the trial court erred in sustaining the plaintiff’s demurrer and striking the paragraph of the defendant’s answer which asserted the defense.

The company urges strenuously that the oral contract alleged in the petition was wholly unilateral in character for the reason that it imposed no obligation upon the plaintiff now-seeking to enforce it, and since there was no mutuality of obligation it was void and unenforceable and its general demurrer should have been sustained, not overruled, as the trial court did in this case.

The petition alleges that the company orally agreed with the plaintiff to employ his services to solicit subscriptions for the initial authorized capital stock, and that the plaintiff orally agreed with the defendant company to furnish the plaintiff’s services and to devote his full time to soliciting subscriptions for the purchase of the shares of stock at the designated price until he had obtained subscriptions for all of the remaining shares of the initial stock offering, and that it was agreed between them that the plaintiff would perform the services of obtaining the subscriptions in a satisfactory manner within a period of two years from November 22, 1946. The petition further alleges that, as part compensation for the sendees the plaintiff agreed to render, he would receive 10% of the purchase price of each share payable as and when the subscription was received by the company; that for the remainder of the plaintiff’s compensation upon his obtaining subscriptions for all of the initial shares, he would have the complete and exclusive right from that time until January 1, 1957, to solicit subscriptions for the purchase of and to sell each share of the remaining 90,000 shares of capital stock which the defendant was authorized by its charter to issue, at a price of $20 per share or at such price per share as might be fixed by the defendant as the value per share; that the plaintiff would have the right to employ others in assisting him in selling this remaining stock; that the plaintiff would receive as compensation [230]*23010% of the subscription purchase price of each of the remaining shares payable as the subscriptions were received by the defendant; that during the period that the plaintiff had this right, the defendant would not sell or in any way transfer or dispose of any of the stock unless for each share sold or otherwise disposed of it first paid the plaintiff 10% of the amount of money fixed by the defendant as the sales price or the value of each share.

The petition further charged that the plaintiff fully performed the agreement to sell the initial shares of capital stock, that the defendant accepted the performance, received subscriptions therefor, and paid the plaintiff the 10% of the purchase price named in the subscription. The petition also alleges that the defendant carried out and performed the other part of the agreement relating to the remaining shares of authorized capital stock until 1950 by according the plaintiff the complete and exclusive right to solicit subscriptions for the purchase and sale during the calendar years 1947 to and including January, 1950. During this period the plaintiff alleges that he sold approximately 12,750' additional shares of the capital stock of the defendant under the agreement and received payment as stipulated in the amount of 10% of the subscription price.

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Bluebook (online)
119 S.E.2d 63, 103 Ga. App. 225, 1961 Ga. App. LEXIS 913, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/piedmont-life-insurance-co-v-bell-gactapp-1961.