Crankshaw v. Schweizer Manufacturing Co.

58 S.E. 222, 1 Ga. App. 363, 1907 Ga. App. LEXIS 245
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 24, 1907
Docket33
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 58 S.E. 222 (Crankshaw v. Schweizer Manufacturing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crankshaw v. Schweizer Manufacturing Co., 58 S.E. 222, 1 Ga. App. 363, 1907 Ga. App. LEXIS 245 (Ga. Ct. App. 1907).

Opinion

Russell, J.

1, 2. The plaintiff in error assigns the refusal of a new trial, upon his motion and amendments thereto, to be the error which should be corrected. The first three grounds of the motion are in the stereotyped form commonly called the general grounds, and sometimes known as a skeleton motion; but they call for a complete review and weighing of the evidence as it appears in the record, which in this case is by no means brief. We have taken the pains to travel deliberately more than once through the very voluminous record in this case and to examine its contents most critically. We have been enlightened on some of the principles of natural philosophy as applied to., cabinet-making, and have become conversant with some phases of the jewelry business. This court, however, being restricted to the correction of errors of law and in equity, the only legitimate purpose of our journey through, the evidence embodied in the record is the discovery of errors of law; and especially to determine, so far as the three original grounds of the motion are concerned, whether the refusal of avnew trial is an error of law because the verdict is without evidence to support it. In considering the three general grounds alone, it may be stated, as a general rule, that if the evidence is sufficient to support the verdict, it should not be interfered with, unless (a) some ruling of the court improperly withheld from the consideration of the jury evidence which they should have had, and which might have contributed to a different result; or (6) unless the judge illegally permitted matters to be considered by the jury which were foreign to the true issues, and which he should not have allowed them to use in making their verdict; or (c) unless the court’s instructions to the jury in the charge were erroneous, inapplicable, or misleading. We use the word “matters” in subhead (6), for the reason that it may include, in some eases, not only testimony of witnesses — matters of proof, but also various matters of fact, such ds improper conduct of the court, counsel, parties, officers of court, spectators, or the jury themselves. This statement is not exhaustive, and of. course has reference peculiarly to motions based on ordinary general [367]*367grounds. It has no application to motions dependent on refusals to grant continuances, on newly discovered testimony, or other extraordinary grounds, nor to a ground based on the denial of a right —such as is insisted on in this case — of opening and concluding. Considering the general grounds first, taken by themselves, it is our opinion that there was no error in refusing a new trial upon either contention of the skeleton motion, or upon all three of them taken as a whole. We therefore proceed to consider the several grounds presented in the amendment. These are thirteen in number.

3, 4. In the first the movant insists that he was wrongly deprived of the right to open and conclude the case in the argument before the jury. He-was the defendant, and the justness of his claim to the opening and conclusion is to be. determined by the extent of his admissions. Did he admit a prima facie case? It can not be doubted that this question is to be answered by a comparison in this case of the allegations in the petition with the answer thereto. We think the placing of petition and plea in parallel columns 'demonstrates that a prima facie case was not admitted.

Petition.

The plaintiff entered into a contract with the defendant to furnish him four wall eases for the sum of $3800. The cases were delivered and installed in the store of the defendant on April 31, 1903. The plaintiff has fully complied with its contract; 'the defendant has paid $3079.59, leaving due $730.41, besides interest, payment of which has been refused on demand.

Pleas.

The cases referred to were delivered and installed in the defendant’s store; but the petition does not set up the contract between the parties; the real contract is set up in paragraph five of the answer. The cases were not duly set up. The plaintiff did not fully comply with its contract and the defendant is not indebted in any sum. Demand for payment was made, and rightly refused.

And the remainder of the plea mentions many other items in respect to which a contract was not complied with; We do not think that to say a contract has been made, but has failed in any material or essential particular can be construed as an admission that the contract was fully complied with. It is possible for cases [368]*368to arise, and for the petition to be so skillfully framed, that to admit the plaintiff’s ease would bring, as an inevitable result, a verdict for the plaintiff, and it is perhaps true in this case. Nevertheless the law requires such an admission of a prima facie case as would entitle plaintiff to recovery without proof of any material fact, before the defendant can gain the conclusion. Abel v. Jarratt, 100 Ga. 732; Reid v. Sewell, 111 Ga. 880; Phœnix Ins. Co. v. Gray, 113 Ga. 433. The original petition in this case seeking to recover upon a contract between the parties, before there could be a recovery for the full sum sued for, it must have been either admitted or proved (1) that the contract sued upon was in fact made; (3) and that the plaintiff had fully complied with that contract. The plea denies both these defenses; it disputes the contract sued on being the one made, and affirms that it was not complied with. The very essential allegations of the petition are negatived. It denies that the contract was ever complied with, and denies that there is any sum due. The admission that a contract was made does not meet the requirements when it is insisted that it was only partly complied with. The main body of the contract can not be admitted for the purpose of making a prima facie case, and at the same time the plaintiff’s case be destroyed by showing a breach of warranties inevitably forming a part of the contract. Bverjr stipulation and warranty is as much a part of the contract as the consideration is, and just as inseparable as the names of the parties. “Often they are the heart and soul of the whole contract, without which neither party could have been induced to contract.” We think it clear that defendant was not entitled to the o]3ening and the conclusion. The opening and conclusion in a case on trial before a jury is a very important and substantial right, and its improper refusal is ground for new trial. And in this case, to have taken this right away from plaintiff and to have awarded this advantage to the defendant would, we think, have afforded the plaintiff just ground of complaint.

5. In the second ground of the amended motion the plaintiff in error insists that the court erred in admitting in evidence, over the objection of the defendant, and in refusing to exclude on motion of the defendant’s counsel, the following testimony: “These bent plate-glass doors will never work as smoothly as a straight door,” and the further testimony, “The friction is more in a bent door [369]*369than in a straight 'door. There is no way under heaven to have it otherwise;” and the further testimony, “In case it [the sash] is stuck [in moving it up and down]' a little, you simply adjust the door to a level, and down it comes. That is the way those doors work, and work beautifully.

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Bluebook (online)
58 S.E. 222, 1 Ga. App. 363, 1907 Ga. App. LEXIS 245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crankshaw-v-schweizer-manufacturing-co-gactapp-1907.