Court Opinion

ID: 9582336
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:25:28.621131+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:40.505496
License: Public Domain

Quillian, J.,
dissenting. I am constrained to- dissent from the majority opinion. The rule is well settled that for a real-estate broker to earn his commission he must procure a purchaser ready, able and willing to buy his patron owner’s property on the terms the patron offers to sell. Langford v. Berry, 68 Ga. App. 193 (22 S. E. 2d 349); Selton v. Dowling, 79 Ga. App. 690 (2) (64 S. E. 2d 763). The buyer’s acceptance of the owner’s offer, “to be binding, must be absolute, complete, and unequivocal, and identical with the terms of the offer.” Dukes v. Gore & Co., 11 Ga. App. 743, 744 (76 S. E. 365). If the prospective purchaser engrafts conditions upon his agreement to buy, he does not accept the owner’s offer to sell, but makes a counteroffer, which is not binding until accepted by the owner. Gray v. Lynn, 139 Ga. 294 (77 S. E. 156). In the case cited the offer was made by the purchaser, and the buyer’s acceptance was not upon the exact terms of the offer. It was held not to be an unconditional acceptance. Whether the seller or buyer makes the offer, the principle is the same.
The instrument held in the majority opinion to be an acceptance of the offer, conditioned the purchaser’s acceptance of the owner’s offer to sell upon a survey being made, reserved in the purchaser the right to select the surveyor, and stipulated that the acreage of the parcel of land was to- be determined by such surveyor.
The acreage was material in fixing the purchase price, since the tract was to be sold by the acre. The criteria of the acreage was likewise important. The owner was within her rights in refusing to have the acreage of her land determined by a surveyor chosen and paid by the purchaser without even being apprized of the surveyor’s identity, qualifications, and character.
That parties may select a surveyor as the arbiter of land lines and the size of a parcel of land is recognized in Cliett v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 195 Ga. 257, 265 (24 S. E. 2d 59). The selection of the arbiter of any matter is of consequence in its decision.
*769The authorization of the realtor, which constituted the owner’s offer to sell read: “Lashley Realty Co., Rutland Bldg. Property location 18th Dist. Land Lot 109, DeKalb Co., Ga. Lot size 15 acres Owner Miss Marjorie W. Weldon; How paid 10% Commission; Sale price: $2500 per acre; In consideration of your acceptance of the terms of this agreement and of your promise to list, to offer for sale and to endeavor to> sell my property hereinafter described, to advertise the same in such manner as you may deem advisable and further, to enlist in this behalf the best efforts of your organization in its ordinary course of business I hereby give and grant Lashley Realty Co. for a period of one month from the date of this instrument the exclusive right and authority to sell the property herein described, for the price and upon the terms herein set forth; Date March 3, 1956; signature of owner, Marjorie W. Weldon.”
The purported acceptance procured by the realtor contained the clause: “It is agreed between the parties hereto that the number of acres in the above described property shall be determined by a survey of same furnished and paid for by the purchaser, which acreage so found shall constitute the basis for computing the total sales price of the property at twenty five hundred & no/100 dollars ($2,500) per acre.” Also a clause reading: “it is agreed that the vendor shall furnish good and marketable title to said property and purchaser shall have a reasonable time in which to examine same, in the event title is objected to, the vendor shall be furnished with a written statement of all objections and be allowed a reasonable time thereafter to furnish a valid title.”
Under the holding in Gray v. Lynn, 139 Ga. 294, supra, the acceptance urns not unconditional, indeed, amounted to no acceptance of the owner’s offer to sell.
It was held in Van Winkle v. Harris, 137 Ga. 43 (1) (72 S. E. 424): “Where an agent was ‘authorized and directed’ by the owner of a described tract of land to ‘make sale’ of it for $5,200, ‘one thousand (dollars) of which was to be paid cash’, the agent under such authority did not have the right to bind the owner by a written contract with the plaintiff, wherein it was provided: ‘This agreement is made subject to right of purchaser to investigate titles to the property, and to decline to perform if titles *770of the vendor be legally insufficient and she fails to perfect the same within a reasonable time. . . Cash payment to be made when vendor complies with her obligation to make satisfactory showing as to title.’ ”
No contract was signed by the defendant. The plaintiff made the contract with the prospective purchaser. A part of the contract was the receipt given the purchaser by the defendant. It read: “Received of W. W. Lively the sum of five hundred & no/100 dollars, through_______________________agent, as earnest money to remain with agent during the term of said contract, and subject to acceptance by the owner of said proposition, and it is to be returned to purchaser in the event proposition is declined. This 12 day of March 1956. /s/ G. D. Lashley, Lashley Realty Company, Decatur, Ga.”
The receipt stated in terms as plain as could be expressed in the English language, that the trade was tentative, and would not be binding on the plaintiff until accepted by her.
The paper procured by the plaintiff was merely an offer on the part of the prospective buyer to purchase the property on other terms than those on which the defendant was authorized to sell it.
The evidence submitted on the trial did not authorize a finding that the plaintiff procured a buyer ready, able, and willing to buy the defendant's property on the terms he was authorized to sell the same.
I am cognizant of the fact that the defendant testified that her only reason for rejecting the counter-offer made by the prospective purchaser procured by the plaintiff realtor was that the price was not that at which she had offered to sell. It made no difference whether the reason she gave for not accepting the purchaser’s offer was true or false, the fact remains that she was under no obligation to accept the offer, because it was not on the same terms she had offered to sell the property.
I am impressed that the majority opinion confuses the principles relating to the proof of a cause as laid in a petition and the interposition of a defense. While in some instances a defense not pleaded may be interposed by evidence unobjected to, as in the case of Franklin Savings & Loan Co. v. Branan, 54 Ga. App. 363 (2) (188 S. E. 67), the ancient rule still stands that a plaintiff, to be entitled to recover, must prove the case *771laid in his petition, and not another. Dixie Ornamental Iron Co. v. Parrish, 91 Ga. App. 11 (84 S. E. 2d 716); Hightower v. Scarborough, 79 Ga. App. 342 (53 S. E. 2d 726). A clear pronouncement of the rule is found in Cunningham v. Avakian, 192 Ga. 391, 394 (15 S. E. 2d 493): “The general rule is that the plaintiff must recover, if at all, on the case made by his pleading, and he can not recover where the evidence fails to support the cause declared on, even though a different cause of action may appear from testimony admitted without objection.”
Here the proof of an offer which the defendant was bound to accept was essential to the proof of the plaintiff’s case as pleaded.
Evidence that the plaintiff obtained an offer from a prospective purchaser; that the offer was not on the same terms the defendant had authorized him to sell her property; that though she had a right to reject the counter-offer without assigning any reason, the reason she did give for refusing to accept it was not true, really proved no case at all, and certainly not the case alleged in the petition. It will be observed that the petition alleged that the plaintiff, a realtor, obtained a buyer ready, able, and willing to buy the defendant’s property on the terms she had authorized him to sell.