Gay v. Lewis

114 S.E.2d 155, 101 Ga. App. 387, 1960 Ga. App. LEXIS 884
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 5, 1960
Docket37986
StatusPublished

This text of 114 S.E.2d 155 (Gay v. Lewis) 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
Gay v. Lewis, 114 S.E.2d 155, 101 Ga. App. 387, 1960 Ga. App. LEXIS 884 (Ga. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

Nichols, Judge.

1. The first assignment of error in the bill of exceptions complains that the judgment of the court issuing a rule nisi in the case and assigning the same for hearing was void. The judgment excepted to was rendered on June 3, 1958, in the City of Swainsboro, Emanuel County, Georgia, before the action was filed in the City Court of Dublin. The record discloses that the Judge of the City Court of Dublin had disqualified himself and that the Judge of the City Court of Swainsboro was presiding in the case. The rule nisi was reissued by the presiding judge in Dublin, Laurens County, Georgia. Therefore, the question of whether the first rule nisi was void, as contended by the defendant, becomes moot, and there is no1 assignment of error that the reissued rule nisi was insufficient.

The contention is made that under Code § 24-2205 the judge who presided had no authority to- preside in the case because he had not been requested to> serve by the Judge of the City Court of Dublin. This contention is without merit, for while Code § 24-2205 does provide that another city court judge must be requested to serve when a judge of a city court is disqualified, the defendant sheriff consented for the judge to try the case without the intervention of a jury, and then filed a motion for new trial on other grounds. In Baldwin v. Ragan, 6 Ga. App. 529 (65 S. E. 335), which is very similar to the case sub judice, it was said: “The judge so presiding may, by consent of the parties, tiy and determine, and the judgment rendered therein will be binding, and neither of the consenting parties will thereafter be heard to question his right to render the judgment; and especially would a party in such case be estopped from denying the authority of the presiding judge to render judgment therein, after he had recognized the validity of the judgment by filing a motion for a new trial on other grounds.” Accordingly, this assignment of error is without merit.

2. The defendant filed general and special demurrers to the plaintiff’s petition which were overruled. When the case was be[389]*389fore the Supreme Court it was held, when transferring the writ of error to this court, that the grounds of demurrer attempting to raise constitutional questions were insufficient to do so, and it necessarily follows that those grounds of the sheriff’s demurrers were properly overruled by the trial court.

The remaining grounds of demurrer are controlled adversely to the defendant by the decision of this court in Banks County v. Stark, 88 Ga. App. 368, 378 et seq. (77 S. E. 2d 33), and the judgment of the trial court overruling such grounds of demurrer was not error for any reason assigned, and under such decision as well as the decision of the Supreme Court when such case was before that court (Rucker v. Stark, 209 Ga. 496, 74 S. E. 2d 74) and the authorities there cited, it became the duty of the trial court, under equitable principles, to make distribution of the funds.

3. The third assignment of error complains that the trial court erred in sustaining the plaintiff’s oral motion to dismiss the defendant’s “special plea of res judicata and/or estoppel by judgment as amended.”

Neither the writ of error nor the record discloses the ground, or grounds, upon which the oral motion to dismiss was based, and under the full-bench decision of the Supreme Court in Tree v. City of Atlanta, 144 Ga. 757 (1) (87 S. E. 1021), no question for decision is presented to this court by such assignment of error.

4. Error is assigned on the findings and judgment rendered in the case because the trial court prepared his written findings, decision and judgment in Swainsboro, Emanuel County, Georgia, and mailed them to the clerk of the court in Dublin, Laurens County, Georgia. This assignment of error is based on the contention that the trial court had no' authority in Emanuel County to pass an order or judgment involving a case pending in the City Court of Dublin (Laurens County, Georgia).

“Where there is a conflict between the bill of exceptions and the record, the record controls. Hunt v. State, 64 Ga. App. 320 (13 S. E. 2d 117); Sims v. Hatcher & Wilkerson, 77 Ga. 389 (3) (3 S. E. 92); Howell v. Seigler, 89 Ga. App. 221 (3) (78 S. E. 2d 874).” Johnson v. Johnson, 98 Ga. App. 588 (1) (106 S. E. 2d 176). In the present case the record discloses, with reference to the judgment here complained of that it was rendered in Laur[390]*390ens County, for the final paragraph thereof reads as follows: “This decision and findings of the court and order issued in Laurens County, Dublin, Georgia on this the 10th day of December 1958.”

5. The trial court, hearing the case without the intervention of a jury, rendered the following written opinion, the italicized parts thereof were assigned as error in the amended motion for new trial: “Contentions of parties litigant—-Laurens County instituted rule against proper officers of said county for distribution of fund held by the Clerk of the City Court of Dublin and sheriff of said county. Laurens County contends that the fund should be distributed between the sheriff, said clerk and solicitor of said court on a percentage or pro rata basis in accordance with the Act of City Court of Dublin of the year 1900 and legal amendments to said act. The county contends that the portion of the fund going to- the solicitor and the clerk of said court shall be paid to the legal authorities of the county, as said officers are on a salary and the county stands in the shoes of said officers and should receive the part of said fund that said officers are entitled to.

“The county further contends that Code section 27-2933 does not give the sheriff any priority over the other two officers in the distribution of the fund. That the sheriff was on a salary from January 1, 1953, up to and until the Supreme Court of Georgia rendered decision holding salary act unconstitutional (see Georgia Report 213, page 518). The decision was rendered by the Supreme Court of Georgia on September 12, 1957. The county contends that any claim of the sheriff or the county as to any sums due either as a result of said decision would involve an accounting which would directly require equitable affirmative relief and the City Court of Dublin does not have jurisdiction to entertain such proceeding. That, therefore, the fund in question should be disbursed in accordance with the City Court Act of 1900 and legal amendments thereto, leaving to the parties their legal rights and remedies to seek to enforce any claim as a result of said Supreme Court decision.

“The clerk and solicitor of said court admit that they are on salary and any part of the fund going to them should be paid as the law directs.

[391]*391“The sheriff contends he is a fee bearing officer and that the county owes him for the period from January 1, 1953, through March 31, 1958, more than the fund in question. That the court should adjudicate that the county owes the sum contended for by the sheriff for such period and that judgment should be rendered accordingly and that the fund in question should be applied as credit on his claim.

“The sheriff and the county filed certain pleas and demurrers which were passed upon by the court and orders signed by the court showing disposition made, all of which are part of the record in the case.

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Related

Rucker v. Stark
74 S.E.2d 74 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1953)
Howell v. Seigler
78 S.E.2d 874 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1953)
Johnson v. Johnson
106 S.E.2d 176 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1958)
Collins v. Griffin
91 S.E.2d 369 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1956)
Banks County v. Stark
77 S.E.2d 33 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1953)
Hunt v. State
13 S.E.2d 117 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1941)
Sims v. Hatcher & Wilkerson
3 S.E. 92 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1887)
Tree v. City of Atlanta
87 S.E. 1021 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1916)
Baldwin v. Ragan
65 S.E. 335 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
114 S.E.2d 155, 101 Ga. App. 387, 1960 Ga. App. LEXIS 884, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gay-v-lewis-gactapp-1960.