Turner v. Gruber

192 S.E. 479, 56 Ga. App. 247, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 327
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided May 14, 1937·No. 26049·Published

Opinion

MacIntyre, J.

L. M. Turner Jr., H. 0. Riggs, and Otis Scott filed their declaration in attachment against G. M. Gruber and A. E.. Goldsworthy, to recover $500. On March 3, 1932, the plaintiffs amended their declaration by amplifying its allegations and pleading a contract whereby the plaintiffs agreed “to sell and convey” to the defendants two permits from the Public-Service Commission of Georgia — one, already held by the plaintiffs, to operate a bus line from Atlanta, Georgia, to Bowdon, Georgia; and another, which was to be procured by the plaintiffs, to operate a bus line from Bowdon to the Alabama line; the consideration for said permits being $2000 cash and $6000 evidenced by certain promissory notes “to be executed upon the transfer of said permits and payment of the $2000 cash.” This contract also provides that the defendants “are this day to deposit in escrow in the Peoples Bank of Carrollton . . the sum of $500, same to be forfeited” to the plaintiffs in the event that they “procure from the Public-Service Commission of Georgia a permit to extend said bus line from Bowdon, Georgia, to the Alabama State line and a transfer of said permit, together with a transfer of the permit now owned by” them, “from Atlanta, Georgia, to Bowdon, Georgia,” and the defendants “fail to carry out their part of this agreement by the payment of $2000 in cash and executing all deferred notes as described in this contract.” Paragraph 3 of this amendment avers that “the plaintiffs carried out their part of the contract and succeeded in getting the Public-Service Commission to agree to grant a permit to the defendants from Bowdon, Georgia, to the Alabama line, and that plaintiffs were ready and offered to carry [248] out the terms of said contract.” (Italics ours.) Paragraph 4 of the amendment alleges that the “ defendants failed and refused to carry out tlieir part of the said contract, or to make any payment, or to execute any notes, as provided therein, and that by the terms of said contract, the sum of $500 was forfeited to the plaintiffs.” On April 26, 1932, the following amendment was allowed, subject to demurrer: “Plaintiffs notified defendants by letter and telephone that they had got the Public-Service Commission io agree to grant permit from Bowdon, Georgia, to Alabama line, and that they were ready to transfer their permit from Atlanta . . to Bowdon, Georgia, and defendants failed and refused to carry out their part of the contract. . . These plaintiffs had obtained the permission from the Public-Service Commission some two months after the contract was executed, and immediately notified defendants some time before this suit was brought.” (Italics ours.)

At this stage of the case the court overruled a genera] and a special demurrer to the declaration as amended. The case then proceeded to trial, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs. In due course the case reached this court. Gruber v. Turner, supra. It was held: “Before the sellers are entitled to receive the $500 as a forfeit provided by the contract they must actually procure from the Public-Service Commission the permit to extend the bus line as agreed on.” And “This is true notwithstanding the purchasers, before the arrival of the date upon which the cash payment is to be made under the terms of the contract, may have announced their inability to carry out the contract and have refused to carry it out.” The second headnote of that' case reads: “In a suit by the sellers against the purchasers, to recover $500 as the amount of the deposit, where it did not appear from the petition that the Public-Service Commission had issued the permit to extend the line from Bowdon, Georgia, to the Alabama State line, but it appeared'only that the plaintiffs had succeeded “'in getting the Public-Service Commission to agree to grant a permit to the defendants from Bowdon, Georgia, to the Alabama State line, and the plaintiffs were ready and offered to carry out the terms of said contract/ and where it did not appear from the evidence that the plaintiffs had obtained such a permit, . . but that the Public-Service Commission had only agreed to issue [249] such a permit, and that the plaintiffs were willing to perform as alleged, the petition failed to set out a cause of action, and the evidence was insufficient to authorize the verdict for the plaintiffs. The court erred in not sustaining the demurrer to the petition as amended, and in overruling the defendants’ motion for new trial.”

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Turner v. Gruber, 192 S.E. 479, 56 Ga. App. 247, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 327 (Ga. Ct. App. 1937).

192 S.E. 479 (Turner v. Gruber) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Gruber v. Turner
184 S.E. 432 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1936)