Copeland v. Carpenter

• Decision Date: 12 November 1947
• Docket Number: 16004.
• Citation: 45 S.E.2d 197,203 Ga. 18
• Parties: COPELAND v. CARPENTER.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

45 S.E.2d 197

203 Ga. 18

COPELAND v. CARPENTER.

No. 16004.

Supreme Court of Georgia

November 12, 1947

Syllabus by the Court.

1. A petition alleging that the defendant has wilfully, falsely and maliciously stated to a prospective purchaser from the owner of land that he owns it, has deeds to it, and will sell it, states a cause of action for what ever special damages are sustained by the owner as a consequence thereof.

2. The petition states but a single cause of action, and that ground of the demurrer which attacks it for misjoinder of causes of action is without merit.

3. In an action for slander to title under the Code, § 105-1411 only such special damages as result directly therefrom may be recovered, and the pleader must allege them plainly, fully and distinctly and with that particularity necessary to put the defendant on notice of their character.

C. W. Carpenter brought a suit against John W. Copeland for damages and injunction. His petition alleged that his father in 1874 purchased a described tract of land in DeKalb County from Elijah Copeland, the grandfather of the defendant. By a series of conveyances title had become vested in him. He and his predecessors in title had been in actual possession of the land since it was purchased by his father. On December 9, 1946, the defendant notified the plaintiff that the plaintiff had no right in or on the land; that he would swear out a warrant for the plaintiff's arrest if he again entered upon it; and that the defendant had continued falsely and wrongfully to assert a claim thereto. In 1947 the defendant endeavored to return it for taxes in DeKalb County. During August, 1946, he wilfully, falsely, and maliciously stated to Dr. Garth E. Green, a prospective purchaser from the plaintiff, that he owned the land, had deeds to it and would sell it. He will continue to make such statements to the irreparable injury and damage of the plaintiff unless enjoined. An injunction should be granted to prevent a multiplicity of prosecutions, claims, and counterclaims. He had expended $100 investigating the defendant's claim; $500 for counsel fees, which was a necessary item of expense to prevent a continued slander of his title; and had been damaged $2400 resulting from a loss of his time and a sale of the property to Garth E. Green. The petition was demurred to generally as failing to state a cause of action and specially for various reasons. The exceptions are to a judgment overruling the demurrers.

Robt. B. Blackburn, of Atlanta, and Weekes & Candler, of Decatur, for plaintiff in error.

Augustine Sams, of Atlanta, for defendant in error.

CANDLER, Justice (after stating the foregoing facts).

1. The sufficiency of the petition is challenged by the demurrer on the ground that it states no cause of action for any of the relief prayed. 'The owner of any estate in lands may maintain an action for libelous or slanderous words falsely and maliciously impugning his title, if any damage shall have accrued to him therefrom.' Code, § 105-1411. A petition which alleges the uttering and publishing of slanderous words, that they were false, that they were malicious, that special damages resulted, and that the plaintiff had an estate in the property slandered, states a cause of action. 25 Cyc. 559; Schoen v. Maryland Casualty Co., 147 Ga. 151, 153, 93 S.E. 82. The instant petition alleges that the plaintiff owned certain described land in ...