Court Opinion

ID: 9572680
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:43:38.641739+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:33:48.474854
License: Public Domain

Bell, Judge,
dissenting. Since in each count there was an allegation that the money was loaned upon the defendant’s promise to make repayment upon demand made by the plaintiff, there being no negotiable promissory notes given, a demand by the plaintiff was a condition precedent to the maintenance of the action. It is elementary that the statute of limitation begins to run from the time the cause of action accrues. Under the allegations of the petition, the demands for payment were made in January of 1960, and the statute of limitation began to run at that time.
This situation seems to be controlled by the case of Poole v. Trimble, 102 Ga. 773, 774 (29 S. E. 871), which states in part, *564“When the loan was made, no time for its repayment was agreed upon by the parties, but in March, 1891, plaintiff wrote a letter which was in effect a demand, and which, therefore, fixed the maturity of the debt. Where a debt is not at once due and no time is specified for its payment, it is due and payable in a reasonable time or upon demand subsequently made. The cases of Chandler v. Chandler, 62 Ga. 612, and Patterson v. Blanchard, 98 Ga. 518, relied upon by plaintiff in error, are readily distinguishable from the present; for in neither of those cases was there any demand and refusal to pay. Arguendo, those cases are authority for our decision in this, that a debt for which no time of payment has been fixed and which is not due at once, becomes due immediately upon demand and refusal to pay.j”,
It is clearly alleged in the petition here that the debt was to become due on demand. It necessarily follows that the debt was not due until the demand was made. Accordingly, the statute could not begin to run until the debt became due. Under this view, the action was brought within the statutory period, and accordingly the trial court’s overruling of the defendant’s demurrers based on the statute of limitation should be affirmed by this court.

Felton, C. J., concurs in this dissent.