Watts v. Rich

175 S.E. 417, 49 Ga. App. 334, 1934 Ga. App. LEXIS 394
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided July 11, 1934·No. 23755·Published·Cited by 18 cases

Opinions

MacIntyre, J.

1. A petition against an administrator of the estate of a named person, which alleges: that the plaintiff and her husband were asked by the intestate, an aged man who was sick with tuberculosis, to come to his house and live with him and take [335] care of him; that the plaintiff and her husband moved into his house and lived with him, buying the groceries and taking care of him; that plaintiff waited upon him, built his fires, cooked his meals, sometimes serving them to the intestate in bed, attended and cared for him when he was confined to his bed from sickness, and even nursed him, sometimes all during the night; that said work of attending to the intestate was tiresome, and dangerous on account of the disease he had, but plaintiff did so tenderly and carefully, meeting every need and want of the intestate; that the services plaintiff performed were satisfactory to the intestate; that the intestate had no relatives other than one brother, and was not on speaking terms with him; that no relatives of the intestate attended his funeral or made any arrangements therefor; that plaintiff attended the intestate from January 1, 1931, until his death on July 15, 1932, and that her services in this connection were reasonably worth $100 per month during 1931 and $150 monthly during 1932, the intestate being bedridden more during 1932, and consequently requiring more of the plaintiff’s time to properly look after his needs and wants; that the estate of the intestate was solvent and he had no heirs except said brother; and that plaintiff is entitled to a judgment for the reasonable worth of her services, sets forth a cause of action against the estate of the intestate.

2. While a plaintiff is required to set out his cause of action in a full, complete, and definite manner, in order that the defendant may, without difficulty, understand the nature of the plaintiff’s charge or demand, and make preparation to meet it (Civil Code, § 5538), this requirement is to be liberally construed (Kemp v. Central &c. R. Co., 122 Ga. 559, 50 S. E. 465); and a plaintiff is not required to allege impossible particulars or unnecessary details (Bittick v. Georgia &c. R. Co., 136 Ga. 138, 70 S. E. 106), nor is a plaintiff required to set forth in his petition the evidence relied on to make out his cause of action, it being sufficient if he alleges enough to inform the opposite .party of the grounds of his action, and to enable the jury to find an intelligible and complete verdict, and enable the court to declare distinctly the law of the case. Cedartown Cotton &c. Co. v. Miles, 2 Ga. App. 79 (58 S. E. 289); Wrightsville &c. R. Co. v. Vaughan, 9 Ga. App. 371 (2), 377 (71 S. E. 691).

[336] (a) Reasonable certainty as to essential statements is sufficient to enable pleadings to withstand a special demurrer. Complete particularity of statement is not required where a reasonable inference, from the statements made, readily suggests the facts. Flint River R. Co. v. Maples, 10 Ga. App. 573 (73 S. E. 957).

'(b) Accordingly, the petition in this case was not demurrable because it did not allege, except in a general way, what the plaintiff did for deceased, did not sufficiently allege the period of time for which she performed these services, did not state with sufficient definiteness the exact times the deceased was confined to his home, then to his room, and then to his bed, beeaiise the dates of the nights plaintiff nursed the deceased all night were not set forth, because it was not set forth that any doctor attended the deceased, and, if so, the name of the doctor, because it was not alleged how many nights plaintiff sat up with the deceased, and because the contract between the deceased and plaintiff was not set forth with sufficient definiteness.

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Watts v. Rich, 175 S.E. 417, 49 Ga. App. 334, 1934 Ga. App. LEXIS 394 (Ga. Ct. App. 1934).

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