Swinks v. O'HARA
Swinks v. O'HARA
Opinion of the Court
“ ‘The obligation by which one binds himself -to- sell, and leaves it discretionary with the other party to buy, is what is termed in law an option,, which is simply a ■ contract by which the owner of property agrees with another person that he shall have a right to- buy the property at a fixed price within a certain time.’ Black v. Maddox, 104 Ga. 157, 162 (30 S. E. 723).” Gulf Oil Corp. v. Willcoxon, 211 Ga. 462, 465 (86 S. E. 2d 507). The instrument in the present case clearly fits this definition and is an option.
The defendant insists that the judge erred in overruling
The courts of some foreign jurisdictions have held contrary to that which is held here, but this court is bound by the previous holdings of the appellate courts of this State in which “marketable title” is defined.
The plaintiff also insists that the defendant agreed after execution of the option to obtain releases from the property owners of the subdivision and thereby remove the restrictive covenants from the property in question. Whether the plaintiff agreed to do this is immaterial because there being no new consideration shown the agreement would not be binding. Gulf Oil Corp. v.
The plaintiff having failed to exercise his option to purchase the property, the defendant was entitled to retain the $2,500. The judge erred in overruling the. general demurrer to the petition.
Judgment reversed.
Concurring Opinion
concurring specially. I concur in the judgment for the reason that it is not alleged in the petition that condition number one of the contract was not complied with, to wit: that the $2,500 was to be refunded if the property was not zoned for church and school purposes by the officials of DeKalb. County, Georgia. If the property had been so zoned the plaintiff could have used the property for the purposes of school and church.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- SWINKS v. O’HARA, Bishop
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published