Sanford v. Patent Scaf-folding Co. Inc

• Citation: 33 S.E.2d. 422
• Decision Date: 06 March 1945
• Docket Number: No. 15093.,15093.
• Parties: SANFORD et al. v. PATENT SCAF-FOLDING CO., Inc.
• Court: Supreme Court of Georgia

33 S.E.2d. 422

SANFORD et al.

v.PATENT SCAF-FOLDING CO., Inc.

No. 15093.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

March 6, 1945.

Syllabus by the Court.

Damages growing out of a breach of contract, in order to form the basis of a recovery, must be such as could be traced solely to the breach, be capable of exact computation, must have arisen according to the usual course of things, and be such as the parties contemplated as a probable result of the breach.

DUCKWORTH, J., dissenting.

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; Walter C. Hendrix, Judge.

Suit in equity by E. S. Sanford and the Sanford-Brown Company to enjoin proceedings in a suit by the Patent Scaffolding Company, Inc., against plaintiff company to recover rentals for scaffolding equipment and recover damages arising from defects in such equipment. Judgment sustaining a general demurrer to the petition, and plaintiffs bring error.

Affirmed.

This was an equity suit filed by SanfordBrown Company, seeking to enjoin a proceeding against them instituted by the Patent Scaffolding Co., Inc., in the civil court of Fulton County, and containing an allegation and prayer for damages. Prior to the institution of the instant suit, the Patent Scaffolding Co., Inc., had filed a suit against Sanford-Brown Company in the civil court of Fulton County to recover rentals on scaffolding equipment which had been rented to the latter. By cross-action and counter claim, the latter alleged that the scaffolding equipment was defective, and by reason thereof they had suffered damages in excess of five thousand dollars. To this answer the judge of the civil court of Fulton County sustained a demurrer, one of the grounds being that the answer was an effort to obtain affirmative equitable relief, and beyond the jurisdiction of that court.

Subsequently, the instant petition in equity was filed, and the proceedings in the civil court of Fulton County were restrained. To this petition the trial judge sustained a general demurrer, and the case is brought to this court by writ of error.

The allegations in substance were: That during April, 1943, the Sanford-Brown Company secured a contract with the Navy for the construction of a large blimp hangar' near Brunswick; that they rented scaffolds from the Patent Scaffolding Co., Inc., to use thereon; that an employee who had been working on this particular job approximately two months was fatally injured on September 20, 1943, by a fall caused by the teeth around the drum on the end of the scaffold stripping, whichwas the result of the defective and unsuitable condition of the implement.

As to damages suffered by SanfordBrown Company in virtue of this occurrence, it was alleged: (a) At the time their employee fell, this contract with the Navy was about ninety per cent, completed, and following this fatal fall " * * 50 per cent of the best employees of the plaintiff refused to continue on said job on account of having to use the said equip-, ment furnished by the defendant; and it was impossible for plaintiff to obtain other employees to take their places, and the efficiency of the work of those employees who did remain on the job for the plaintiff was reduced more than 50 per cent, and as a result thereof, instead of the payroll of the plaintiff from September 20, 1943, to the conclusion of the job being $2500, the payroll of the plaintiff for labor was $6400, a loss of approximately...