Court Opinion

ID: 9851997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:22:47.196515+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:20.971306
License: Public Domain

Hawes, Justice,
dissenting. I think that the trial judge abused his discretion in granting a temporary injunction under the facts of this case. The case of Springtime, Inc. v. Douglas County, 228 Ga. 753 (2) (187 SE2d 874) decided *98by this court less than a year ago applying the principle of stale demands is controlling here. There we said, "A party is not entitled to an injunction when, with full knowledge of his rights, he has been guilty of delay and laches in asserting them, and has negligently suffered large expenditures to be made by another party on whom great injury would be inflicted by the grant of the injunction. Holt v. Parsons, [118 Ga. 895,899 (45 SE 690)]; City of Elberton v. Pearle Cotton Mills, 123 Ga. 1 (1) (50 SE 977); Whipkey v. Turner, 206 Ga. 410, 415 (57 SE2d 481); Black v. Barnes, 215 Ga. 827, 829 (114 SE2d 38); Goodwin v. First Baptist Church, 225 Ga. 448, 451 (169 SE2d 334).” The judicial facts of this case are not substantially different from the facts of that case. Here the evidence shows without dispute that the defendant procured a building permit from the county on October 29, 1970; that he started construction of the building in February, 1971; that the first inspection had on the building after construction was started was the footing inspection, or foundation, at which time, according to the testimony of the building inspector, it would have been possible to ascertain that the structure when completed would not comply with the sideline requirements of the ordinance. The evidence does not show when the footing inspection was had, but it does show that the county did not become aware of the violation until eight months after the construction was started in October of 1971, at which time the house was substantially complete (according to the county’s own witness, at least 90 percent complete). Apparently, the defendant was notified at that time and administratively ordered to stop construction. He complied with that order and has not, since it was issued, performed any work toward the completion of the house. However, it was more than nine months after that before this suit was commenced.
I think that DeKalb County had constructive notice of the violation of the ordinance in question sometime in *99February or March, 1971 when the footing inspection was made. Equity aids the vigilant, not the slothful. It was incumbent upon the county then to move to correct what appears to have been an honest mistake on the part of Mr. Gray at a time when such mistake could be corrected with a minimum expense to him. To permit the county, after the house was 90 percent complete, to enjoin the defendant from completing it and to require him to move the structure, to my mind, perpetrates an injustice. I cannot visualize a court of equity lending its aid to such an unconscionable action. I must, therefore, respectfully dissent from the opinion and decision of the majority in this case.