Court Opinion

ID: 9620173
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:39:34.915933+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:47.911704
License: Public Domain

Deen, Chief Judge,
concurring specially.
Judge Shulman’s majority opinion appears to me to be correct. Judge Carley’s dissent would of course make it impossible ever to collect damages based on profits to be made from use of land where the landlord thereafter refuses entry prior to the commencement of the lease.
I do not understand that this is what Kenny v. Collier, 79 Ga. 743, 745 (8 SE 58) (1887) (on which Judge Carley relies) holds. Further, that case was distinguished in Shiver v. Burkett, also cited in the dissenting opinion (74 Ga. App. 195, 199 (39 SE2d 431) (1946)) stating that "the *300evidence is sufficient to authorize the jury to make as fair and as just an estimate of the damage... as the necessities of the case will allow.” It is obvious that if this were not the case no damages could ever be proved where there is a contract for an agricultural use. In point of fact, Wideman v. Selph, 71 Ga. App. 343 (30 SE2d 797) (1944), followed by Judge Shulman relies on the later Supreme Court case of Anderson v. Hilton &c. Lumber Co., 121 Ga. 688, 691 (49 SE 725) (1904) which, being a seven-judge case, must take precedence over Kenny, a three-judge case. Anderson, holds that the appellant was correct in suing for "the profits which would have been the immediate result of his operating a mill which the plaintiff had agreed he might operate [on the land] when it stipulated that he should cut the trees and saw them into lumber for purposes of sale.” Here, as in Wideman, the lessee seeks damages which would have been the immediate result of his operating a farm which the plaintiff had agreed he might operate on the plaintiffs property. I would follow the majority opinion.