Piedmont Savings Co. v. Atlanta Title & Trust Co.
Piedmont Savings Co. v. Atlanta Title & Trust Co.
Opinion of the Court
(After stating the foregoing facts.) The first ruling alone needs elaboration. Does the fact that negotiations between the Hollemans to buy and Mrs. Hanson to sell the apartment and take a security deed therefor and further negotiations between Mrs. Hanson and the Woolford Realty Company had been entered into with reference to buying the notes in the event of the closing of the trade between the Hollemans and Mrs. Hanson amount to such a completed contract as that the Woolford Realty Company had no further interest therein except to see that the title to the property was in good shape and the transfer of the notes was in regular form? We think not. The trade was not closed. The very fact that the Woolford Realty Company employed the defendant “to act for it in closing the trade,” and the defendant accepted such employment, precludes a legal conclusion that the trade had already been closed at the time of employment of the defendant company. The Woolford Realty Company, instead of closing this trade itself, employed the defendant company because of its supposed greater knowledge and skill in handling such matters, and turned over to it the money with full authority to act for the Woolford Realty Company and in its behalf. This trust reposed carried with it a corresponding obligation on the part of the defendant to represent the interest of the Woolford Realty Company. That company expected to pa]r, according to the allegations, $10,-000 for sixty $200 notes. It did not expect to pay $10,739.40 for them. The defendant knew or should have known what was the effect of the provision it inserted in the deed from the Hollemans to Mrs. Hanson. Can it be said that if five years’ back taxes, instead of one year’s taxes as in the present ease, had been included in the agreement between Mrs. Hanson and the Hollemans,
As one occupying a relation calling for the utmost good faith in all matters affecting the subject matter of his agency, the defendant failed, according to the allegations of the petition, so to do; and it was error for the trial judge to sustain the demurrer and dismiss the petition.
The court did not err, for any of the reasons assigned, in overruling the demurrer to the answer.
Judgment reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. In my opinion the petition failed to set out a cause of action, and was properly dismissed on demurrer.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.