Guest v. Baldwin, 39170

• Decision Date: 17 November 1961
• Docket Number: No. 39170,No. 3,39170,3
• Citation: 104 Ga.App. 809,123 S.E.2d 194
• Parties: F. B. GUEST v. P. J. BALDWIN
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 194

123 S.E.2d 194

104 Ga.App. 809

F. B. GUEST v. P. J. BALDWIN.

No. 39170.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 3.

Nov. 17, 1961.

Syllabus by the Court

For reasons stated in the opinion the trial court did not err in overruling plaintiff's demurrers to defendant's amended counter-affidavit or cross-action, nor in denying a new trial.

F. B. Guest sued out a dispossessory warrant against Parker J. Baldwin for the purpose of evicting Baldwin from his farm in Newton County, alleging in the affidavit that Baldwin had failed to pay his rent due on the premises and that he was holding over beyond his term. Baldwin filed his counter-affidavit in which he denied the allegations in the affidavit upon which the dispossessory warrant was issued, and later amended his counter-affidavit setting up his contentions as to the terms of the contract between himself and Guest under which he had gone into possession of the farm, that he had fully performed his obligations thereunder and that Guest was indebted to him in the amount of $1,800. Thereafter Guest amended his affidavit, upon which the warrant had been issued, setting out the terms of the contract between him and Baldwin, as he contended them to be, under which Baldwin had gone into possession of the farm, that Baldwin was indebted to him in the sum of $4,790, and at the same time moved a consolidation of all issues between the parties and that such be tried and determined in this proceeding.

Guest demurred to the amended counteraffidavit on the grounds that it did not set out a cause of action, that it was an attempt to set up a new cause of action, and that there was a misjoinder of causes of action, one sounding on contract and another in tort. The demurrers were overruled, and on a trial of the case the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant, Baldwin, in the sum of $1,000. Plaintiff filed a motion for new trial on the general grounds, and upon two special grounds, which was overruled. He now excepts to the ruling on the demurrers and upon the overruling of his motion for new trial.

Preston L. Holland, Hapeville, for plaintiff in error.

Greeley Ellis, Covington, for defendant in error.

EBERHARDT, Judge.

1. Plaintiff insists that the contract as contended for by the defendant was too vague and uncertain to be enforceable. We do not think so. Defendant alleged that the plaintiff had gone to South Carolina, where he was then residing, and arranged with him to move to a farm that plaintiff had purchased in Newton County, Ga., there to tend the livestock, plant such crops as plaintiff might require, cultivate and harvest the same, and that as compensation he would be allowed to live on the farm, to draw $35 per week for living expenses during the year, that defendant might use plaintiff's tractor to do such outside public work as he could get and receive the pay therefor as a part of his compensation for services on the farm, and further that at the end of the year an additional sum would...