Bourquin v. Bourquin

35 S.E. 710, 110 Ga. 440, 1900 Ga. LEXIS 457
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedApril 7, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 35 S.E. 710 (Bourquin v. Bourquin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bourquin v. Bourquin, 35 S.E. 710, 110 Ga. 440, 1900 Ga. LEXIS 457 (Ga. 1900).

Opinion

Cobb, J.

This was an action of ejectment brought by Polignac Bourquin to recover of Gugie Bourquin two separate parcels of real estate, one parcel being located in the city of Savannah [441]*441and the other outside of' the city in the county of Chatham. The jury returned a verdict finding the “ city property” for the plaintiff and the “ country property ” for the defendant. Each party filed a motion for new trial; and upon the overruling of his motion sued out a bill of exceptions to this court, each contending that the jury should have found in his favor as to both of the parcels in dispute.

1. The plaintiff’s motion for a new trial was overruled June 17, 1899. In this motion he complains of the admission of certain evidence offered by the defendant, alleging that the evidence was irrelevant, but fails to state in the motion that this ground of objection was urged at the trial. This ground of the motion, as has been often ruled by this court, can not be considered. The plaintiff, however, attempts to cure this omission "by assigning error in the bill of exceptions on the admission of the evidence, stating therein that the objection was urged at the trial. The assignment in the bill of exceptions can not be considered, because the bill of exceptions was tendered and certified on June 20, 1899, while the case was tried at the June term, 1897, of the superior court. The bill of exceptions iss in ample time to complain of the overruling of the motion for a new trial, but too late to complain of rulings made at the trial, exceptions to which are not embodied in the motion for a new trial. The question arises, therefore, as to whether an omission fatal to the consideration of a ground in a motion for a new trial can be cured by a proper assignment in the bill of exceptions. We think it can not. The trial judge could have refused to grant a new trial on the ground of the motion under consideration, for either one of two reasons: first, that, treating the assignment as properly made, no error was committed in admitting evidence; and second, that conceding error to have "been committed, the assignment was improperly made, because “the ground of the motion did not state what objection was made to the evidence at the trial. When a motion for a new trial is presented to a trial judge, he can refuse, just as this court refuses, to consider any ground thereof which is improperly framed. If he should overrule a motion for this reason, then it •can not be said that he has ever passed on the question attempted [442]*442to be made in t.be motion. This court sits to review rulings of the trial courts, and it will not pass upon questions on which no ruling has ever been made by the trial judge. See, as bearing somewhat on the question under consideration, Glay v. Smith, 108 Ga. 189; Nexornan v. Day, 108 Ga. 813.

2. The jury found for the plaintiff the city property. It appears from the evidence that the plaintiff is the natural son of the defendant; that in 1872 the latter bought the property in dispute from certain named persons and caused a deed thereto to be made to him as trustee for the plaintiff; that in 1891 the property was seized by the City of Savannah and sold for taxes, being- bought in by Julius Kaufman. The plaintiff became of age in November, 1891. On July 8, 1892, Kaufman conveyed the property to the defendant. If these deeds from the city to Kaufman and from him to the defendant are valid, then the defendant as trustee has been divested of the title and he owns the property in his individual right. If, on the other hand, the deeds referred to are invalid for any reason, then the title is-still in the defendant as trustee, and the jury properly found for the plaintiff, as the trust, if one existed, became executed in November, 1891. The plaintiff attacked these deeds as being fraudulent and void. A deed obtained by actual or moral fraud conveys no title, and the true owner when he is an innocent victim of the fraud may, as against the perpetrator of the fraud or one who has notice of the same, either go into equity to have the deed cancelled, or sue in ejectment for the property embraced in the deed and attack the same as a fraudulent conveyance. Under the practice in this State, a plaintiff in ejectment can set up in his petition that a given conveyance was obtained by fraud, and pray for its cancellation, but he need not do even this. If he shows by his evidence that the deed on which the defendant relies was obtained by actual or moral fraud and shows title in himself, judgment ought to be rendered in his favor. We think the jury were warranted in finding that the deeds from Kaufman to the defendant and the deed from the city marshal to Kaufman were infected with fraud. Notwithstanding the property was worth about $125 a year for rent, the defendant allowed it to be seized and sold by the city for taxes. Kaufman, [443]*443who was not especially intimate with the defendant, “ happened ” to be at the court-house on the day of sale. He testified that; the marshal suggested that he bid in the property for the defendant, while the marshal testified that the suggestion came-from Kaufman himself, and he admitted that on a former trial of the case his testimony was on this point the same as that of the marshal on this trial. However this may be, he did buy it in, as he said, for the defendant, paying for it the sum of $35. The deed to him was made July 8, 1891. Afterwards he saw the defendant and told him what he had done; whereupon the-defendant cursed him and told him to mind his own business. After that Kaufman thought the property was his, and told the defendant so. Matters went along-this way for some time, when, on July 8, 1892, just one year and a day after Kaufman bought the property, he executed a deed to the same to the defendant in his individual right, the consideration being $40.60, notwithstanding the property was worth at least $1,000. Thereafter the defendant returned the property for taxes in his own name, and treated it in every way as his own. While the evidence on the question of fraud was not of such character as to-demand a finding in favor of the plaintiff, we think the jury were authorized to find that the transactions which culminated in the deed to the defendant were merely colorable and entered into for the express purpose of defeating any right which the-plaintiff might have to claim the property. The motive for-doing this on the part of the defendant was furnished by the fact, that he and the plaintiff had not gotten along well together, and that the latter had left his father’s house and been absent for several years. The deed from Kaufman was taken on the very day after the time for redeeming the property had expired, and the amount paid him was just about sufficient to cover the sum he paid for the property and the expenses of making the transfer.

3. The judge was requested to charge the jury, that “ the record of a deed by the grantor is entitled to great consideration,” and in the absence of evidence to the contrary would justify a presumption of delivery. The judge charged the jury that the record of the deed by the defendant and the fact that he returned the property for taxation as the property of the plaintiff raised [444]*444a presumption that the deed had been delivered. This charge embodied so much of the request as was legal and prop'er. It is not proper for a judge to instruct the jury that particular evidence is entitled to great weight or- great consideration. This is a matter entirely for them.

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Bluebook (online)
35 S.E. 710, 110 Ga. 440, 1900 Ga. LEXIS 457, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bourquin-v-bourquin-ga-1900.