Court Opinion

ID: 9572799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:44:42.28196+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:34:20.558361
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Bell, Judge.
On motion for rehearing, the defendant strongly contends that the case of Crawford v. Baker, 207 Ga. 56 (60 S. E. 2d 146), compels a different holding from that rendered here. We do not agree.
In the Crawford case the Supreme Court held that even though the plaintiff wa's under no obligation under the contract to sell petroleum products to the defendant, the plaintiff had furnished other considerations which had been received and accepted by the defendant, and the contract was, therefore, based upon a valid and valuable consideration and was not invalid as being unilateral and without mutuality. The Crawford case is clearly distinguishable from this. There are no “other” considerations present here.
The contract involved in this action is within the rule of Morrow v. Southern Express Co., 101 Ga. 810 (28 S. E. 998), where the plaintiff alleged that the defendant had assumed the obligation of a contract between the plaintiff and a third party to receive and carry all the milk and butter which the plaintiff would offer for shipment and to return the containers. The agreement had been carried on for a number of years until the defendant’s refusal to receive further shipments. In holding the contract to be unilateral and unenforceable for lack of mutuality, the Supreme Court said, “It is true it is alleged that the railroad promised to receive and carry all the milk and butter which the plaintiff would offer for shipment at a given *841point . . . but the plaintiff did not undertake or bind himself to make any such shipments at the time the promise of the railroad was made; and if we treat the promise of the railroad as conditional on the furnishing of such shipments, yet, notwithstanding it is alleged the plaintiff did offer and the railroad or express company received such shipments for a number of years, it is obvious that the doing of these acts on the part of the plaintiff did not bind him to any future performance . . . The plaintiff never became bound by any promise, nor did he do any such act as would supply the promise. The contract was not mutual and binding at its inception, nor did it subsequently become so.”
The decision here is that the contract was executed as to past performances, but was unenforceable as to future performances, for lack of mutuality. We adhere to it.
There is still another reason why the defendant’s cross-action cannot prevail. The defendant’s own testimony shows that he defaulted in the terms of payment; that under the contract he was to pay the next day for the previous day’s deliveries; that he became “way behind” with his payments; and that this default had run to a large amount. Under decisions of the Supreme Court, this default gave the plaintiff the right to discontinue further shipments. “If the defendants were entitled to be furnished goods at certain times under the contract, they were under a correlative duty to pay for them in accordance with the contract, and their failure to do so gave the plaintiffs a right to discontinue the shipping of goods. The defendants can not be allowed to violate their part of the contract by a failure to make payments when due, and then hold the plaintiffs for damages because of failure to ship additional goods thereafter.” Armuchee Mfg. Co. v. Juilliard & Co., 14 Ga. App. 141, 145 (80 S. E. 525); Savannah Ice-Delivery Co. v. American Refrigerator Transit Co., 110 Ga. 142 (35 S. E. 280).

The motion for rehearing is denied.