Jenkins v. Temples

• Decision Date: 31 December 1869
• Citation: 39 Ga. 656
• Parties: GEORGE W. JENKINS, plaintiff in error. v. JAMES D. TEMPLES, defendant in error.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

39 Ga. 656

GEORGE W. JENKINS, plaintiff in error. v. JAMES D. TEMPLES, defendant in error.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(Atlanta, December Term, 1869.)

Remote damages. Restraint of trade. Demurrer. Decided by Judge parrott. Murray Superior Court. October Term, 1869.

On the 4th of September, 1868, Jenkins bought case against Temples, averring as follows: On the 26th of February, 1868, in Spring-place, in said county, he purchased from Temples, his, Temples', groceries, consisting of whisky, brandy, wine, tobacco, segars, oysters, pickles, mackerel, sardines, candies, etc., etc., being his entire stock of groceries and confectionery, all of 656 which was billed by Temples to him at *very high prices, and agreed to pay Temples for them, in consideration that Temples agreed and bound himself to use all his influence for Jenkins with his former customers to said grocery thus purchasedby Jenkins, and further bound himself not to deal in any of said articles within Spring-place, until January, 1869, and Jenkins further agreed to pay Temples $75 rent for the grocery store, upon the further pledge that Temples would not open or expose to sale in Spring-place, any one of said articles. Yet Temples has opened a grocery in Spring-place, and is selling therein each and every one of the articles aforesaid, to the damage of Jenkins, $500 in sales, and the further sum of $500, in custom and influence.

The Court, ex suo mero moto, dismissed said case, alleging as a reason therefor, that unless said parties had agreed upon a certain sum as damages for breach of said contract, plaintiff could not recover the damages claimed, they being too indefinite and remote. This is assigned as error.

R. J. McCamy, W. Luffman, W. W. Gibbens, for plaintiff in error, cited sees. 2217, 2895, of Irw's Code, as to damages, and 2 Parson's on C, 255; 6th Pick R., 206; Ch. on Com., 579; 10th Ga. R., 503, as to partial restraint of trade.

J. A. W. Johnson, A. Farnsworth, for defendant.

BROWN, C. J.

We are of opinion that the Court erred in ordering this case dismissed, on the ground that the plaintiff could not recover unless he and the defendant "had agreed upon a certain sum as damages for breach of said contract, " and on the ground that the damages were "too indefinite and remote." The declaration alleges, that plaintiff purchased defendant's stock of groceries "at very high figures or prices, " and rented his grocery house for seventy-five dollars, in consideration that the...