Scott v. Lester

• Decision Date: 19 December 1978
• Docket Number: No. 34083,34083
• Citation: 242 Ga. 730,251 S.E.2d 257
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court
• Parties: SCOTT et al. v. LESTER.

Page 257

251 S.E.2d 257

242 Ga. 730

SCOTT et al. v.LESTER.

No. 34083.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Argued Oct. 10, 1978.

Decided Nov. 30, 1978.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 19, 1978.

Westmoreland, Hall, McGee, Warner & Oxford, Jack A. Wotton, Clifford Oxford, Atlanta, for appellants.

G. Hughel Harrison, John F. Doran, Jr., Lawrenceville, for appellee.

JORDAN, Justice.

This appeal is from a judgment denying specific performance of an option to purchase real property.

Herman H. Scott and John H. Stone brought a complaint against Geneva Thompson Lester, Executrix of the estate of Ruth J. Thompson, seeking specific performance of an option given them by Mrs. Thompson, or, in the alternative, for damages.After hearing evidence, the trial judge held that the description of the property in the contract was inadequate to support an action for specific performance or damages, and judgment was entered in favor of the executrix.

In March, 1969, the appellants entered into a contract with Mrs. Thompson, in which she agreed to sell them "all that tract of land being in Land Lot 75 of the 7th District of Gwinnett County, Georgia, running along Georgia HighwayNo. 316, with a sixty (60) foot right of way into Harrington Road; same being about twenty-six (26) acres (more or less to be determined by survey to be attached later at purchaser's expense); same being adjacent to seller's home place on the Duluth-Lawrenceville Highway (Harrington Road)."

The contract contained the following additional agreement: "Purchaser shall have first refusal to purchase seller's home place adjacent to the acreage set out in this contract, in the event of seller's death, or if she elects to sell same at a later date.The purchase price for said land will be Fifteen Hundred Dollars ($1,500) per acre and the seller herein will give to the purchaser notice of her desire to sell and the purchaser shall have ninety (90) days after said notice to complete said purchase.If the purchaser herein does not buy said land at that time, which is to say at the end of ninety (90) days, then the seller may sell it to anyone whom she wishes."

Thereafter a survey was made, and agreed to by Mrs. Thompson, as to the location of the line between Mrs. Thompson's home place and the property to be conveyed, and in June, 1969, Mrs. Thompson conveyed 32.728 acres to the appellants pursuant to their contract.The closing statement, signed by Mrs. Thompson and the appellants, recited: "The first refusal option as appears in contract between the parties dated March, 1969 and recorded in Deed Book 318, page 548, Gwinnett County Records shall survive this closing."

Mrs. Thompson lived in the portion she retained of her property until her death.She owned no other property in the county.

The trial judge erred in refusing to grant specific performance to the appellants.The judge relied on Plantation Land Co. v. Bradshaw, 232 Ga. 435, 207 S.E.2d 49(1974).If Mrs. Thompson had refused to convey the first tract of land and the appellants had sought to enforce the contract, the Plantation Land Company case would have been in point, since at that...