Beggs

This action was brought by George C. Mathews to foreclose a mortgage in the sum of $24,000, covering an orange orchard of about twenty-two acres, sold by him to the defendant for the sum of $40,000. Before the trial the plaintiff died and C. H. Beggs, special administrator of his estate, was substituted as plaintiff. The defendant in her amended answer, after certain admissions and denials, pleaded as a further and separate defense and by way of counterclaim that said Mathews had made to her certain false and fraudulent representations in regard to the extent to which a certain disease called 1 ‘ oak-root disease” would spread among the trees in the orchard, and in regard to the composition of the soil on the property; that she relied upon these representations to her damage in the sum of $14,000, which amount she asked to have set off against said $24,000 due on the mortgage. The trial court allowed to defendant a deduction of $2,500 from the amount of the mortgage because of damage due to the spread of the “oak-root disease” and gave judgment for plaintiff for the sum of $22,500 upon the mortgage, together with $1,000 for attorney’s fees, $35 for expenses in searching the title…