Court Opinion

ID: 9844309
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:00:40.575613+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:32.428838
License: Public Domain

Hall, Judge,
dissenting. While the assignment of error relates to a general demurrer to the petition, I think all would agree that the allegations of a consipracy are sufficient even as against a special demurrer. National Bank of Savannah v. Evans, 149 Ga. 67 (2) (99 SE 123); Cook v. Robinson, 216 Ga. 328 (5) (116 SE2d 742); National City Bank of Rome v. Graham, 105 Ga. App. 498, 503 (125 SE2d 223). The question is whether the alleged conspiracy is supported by and combined with a tort which caused damages to the plaintiff. In *223National City Bank of Rome v. Graham, 105 Ga. App. 498, 507, supra, this court, composed of practically the same judges who join in the majority opinion, stated that “the words that the defendants conspired ‘with the full knowledge that . . . petitioner was the efficient cause of the procuring of the purchaser’ for the property ... as against general demurrer, would be sufficient to show a tort.”
The majority opinion takes the position that the petition fails to allege sufficient facts to support a conclusion that the plaintiff was the procuring cause of the sale. From this holding, I dissent. The petition alleges that the plaintiff had a listing of the Cravey property, obtained from the owner, when he first showed the Cravey and Ponder properties to the McEacherns and the bank in April; that the plaintiff procured from the owner and gave the McEacherns plats of the Cravey property showing how it could be joined with the Ponder property; that on the day the plaintiff showed the Cravey property to the defendants other than Maddox, these defendants informed Maddox that they had seen the Cravey property with the plaintiff and that the McEacherns were interested in purchasing the Cravey property; that at the time Maddox did not have the Cravey property listed; that after the Ponder sale was closed through the plaintiff, McEachern’s wife on June 24 requested the plaintiff to continue negotiations for the purchase of the Cravey property; that the first week in July the McEacherns informed the plaintiff they were not interested in the property; that shortly thereafter on July 22, they contracted to purchase the property through Maddox; that Maddox had never shown them the property.
It must be borne in mind that “in determining whether a broker has earned his commission for procuring a purchaser, it is not necessary that his services shall have been the sole cause, but it is enough if the efforts of the broker, acting on the purchaser, are the efficient cause of his offer.” Lundin v. Kuniansky, 107 Ga. App. 774 (131 SE2d 219). “When considering demurrers, pleadings are construed as a whole and given their natural intendment, and the final test of the sufficiency of a petition is whether the defendant can admit all that is alleged and escape liability.” Belk-Gallant Co. of LaGrange v. Cordell, 107 Ga. App. 785, 787 (131 SE2d 575).
*224In ruling on this general demurrer we must admit that all the plaintiff’s allegations of efforts in seeking to procure this purchase are true; must admit the truth of the allegations that on the day the plaintiff showed the property to the defendants other than Maddox, these defendants informed Maddox, who then had not listed the Cravey property, of McEachern’s interest in the property; and must admit further that the allegation that the defendant broker did not even show the purchaser the property is true. Can it be said as a matter of law that a jury would not be authorized to find that, while the plaintiff’s services were not the sole cause, they were the efficient cause in procuring the purchaser? I think not. See Nottingham v. Wrigley, 221 Ga, 386 (144 SE2d 749).
I am authorized to state that Nichols, P. J., concurs in this dissent.