Opinion
8 Div. 330.
October 6, 1931.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Colbert County; J. Fred Johnson, Jr., Judge.
Action for rent by L. L. Haygood against J. R. Dawson. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.
Affirmed.
Defendant's plea 2 is as follows:
2. As a defense to the action says that at the time said action was commenced the plaintiff was indebted to the defendant in the sum of $300 unliquidated demand for breach of contract for rent of land for the year 1929, and defendant avers that he had purchased fertilizer to plant said land, and that he had stock and tools to cultivate said land, and that the said land would have produced approximately $300, and defendant further avers that after he had the said land broken and prepared for planting the plaintiff took possession of said land and would not permit the defendant to work the same, and defendant had no other land to work, and he was thereby damaged in the said sum of $300, which he hereby offers to set off against the demands of the plaintiff, and ask for judgment over against the plaintiff.
Plaintiff demurred to this plea upon the following grounds: (1) That the damages claimed under plea are speculative and too remote; (2) that the plea states facts which could not be legally proven; (3) that the amount of crops and kind of crops that might or could be raised on the land claimed to have been rented would not be an issue in this case; (4) that the damages claimed in the count of the complaint are too speculative and too remote to be off set against the demand for rent due.
R. L. Polk, of Sheffield, for appellant.
A tenant sued for rent may set off or recoup damages for failure of the landlord to comply with his contract. Middleton v. Foshee, 192 Ala. 265, 68 So. 890; Ashe-Carson Co. v. Bonifay, 147 Ala. 376, 41 So. 816; Horton v. Miller, 84 Ala. 537, 4 So. 370; Rowe v. Baber, 93 Ala. 422, 8 So. 865; Ewing v. Shaw, 83 Ala. 333, 3 So. 692.
John E. Deloney, Jr., of Tuscumbia, for appellee.
The damages claimed in the plea are speculative and conjectural. Reed Lbr. Co. v. Lewis, 94 Ala. 626, 10 So. 333; Int. Agri. Corp. v. Abercrombia, 184 Ala. 244, 63 So. 550, 49 L.R.A. (N.S.) 415; Gentry v. Richmond D. R. Co., 38 S.C. 284, 16 S.E. 893. The plea must show a good cause of action, must not be vague and uncertain. Lawton v. Ricketts, 104 Ala. 430, 16 So. 59; Greer v. Malone, 180 Ala. 602, 61 So. 285; Ex parte Steverson, 211 Ala. 597, 100 So. 912; Morris v. Scott, 198 Ala. 119, 73 So. 395; Light v. Henderson, 158 Ala. 200, 48 So. 588; Deslandes v. Scales, 187 Ala. 25, 65 So. 393; Brigham Co. v. Carlisle, 78 Ala. 248.
This was a suit by appellee against appellant for $15, alleged to be due for the rent of a house, which amount was raised by amendment to $30, before the trial.
Appellant filed a plea of set-off, which plea undertook to set up the fact that appellee was due him $300 for the breach of a contract for the rental of land, etc.
It is well settled that a plea of set-off should be as certain as to the damages sought to be set off, as if it were an original action brought by the defendant for that particular demand. Greer v. Malone-Beall Co., 180 Ala. 602, 61 So. 285.
Measured by this rule, it is apparent that appellee's demurrers were properly sustained to appellant's plea referred to.
The trial court's action in sustaining said demurrers being the only matter presented for our consideration, the judgment appealed from is, accordingly, affirmed.
Affirmed.