George v. Standard Oil Co. of Kentucky

124 So. 2d 858, 239 Miss. 712, 1960 Miss. LEXIS 346
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 5, 1960
DocketNo. 41612
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 124 So. 2d 858 (George v. Standard Oil Co. of Kentucky) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
George v. Standard Oil Co. of Kentucky, 124 So. 2d 858, 239 Miss. 712, 1960 Miss. LEXIS 346 (Mich. 1960).

Opinion

Holmes, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Pike County, reversing a judgment of the County Court of said county which overruled a motion of the appellee, Standard Oil Company of Kentucky, to vacate [714]*714and set aside a default judgment rendered against it and in favor of the appellant, Walker George, Jr., in a garnishment proceeding. The facts are substantially as follows:

On January 17, 1958, the appellant, Walker George, Jr., recovered a default judgment against H. G. Sten-nett in the County Court of Pike County for $574.35, together with interest and costs. The validity of this judgment is not challenged. On November 13, 1958, the said Walker George, Jr., filed a suggestion for writ of garnishment on the aforesaid judgment to be served upon Standard Oil Company of Kentucky. The writ was issued on November 13, 1958, and served on the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky on November 19, 1958, summoning the said Standard Oil Company to appear at the December 1958 term of the County Court of Pike County, towit, on December 8, 1958, to answer the said writ of garnishment. No answer was filed to said writ of garnishment and at the return term of the writ, towit, on December 24, 1958, a default judgment was rendered in favor of the said Walker George, Jr., and against the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky for $574.35, together with interest and costs.

No motion was filed during the return term of the County Court of Pike County to set aside the aforesaid default judgment before the adjournment of said term.

On April 7,1959, Joe N. Pigott, the attorney for Walker George, Jr., wrote the' Circuit Clerk of Pike County a letter advising of the rendition of said default judgment and further advising that the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky had been notified of the judgment by a letter from the said Pigott on January 6, 1959, and that no action had been taken toward the payment of said judgment, and further notifying the said clerk that he issue execution on said judgment unless full payment thereof was received by or before April 15, 1959. A copy of this letter was sent to the Standard Oil Company [715]*715at Jackson, Mississippi. On April 10, 1959, being the fourth term of the County Court of Pike County after the rendition of the aforesaid default judgment, the said Standard Oil Company filed a motion in the • County Court of Pike County to set aside and vacate said default judgment. It was alleged in said motion that the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky was not indebted to the said H. G. Stennett at the time of the rendition of the aforesaid default judgment, and had not since become so indebted, and that the said Standard Oil Company of Kentucky had no knowledge of the rendition of said default judgment until the receipt of the aforesaid letter from the attorney for Walker George, Jr.

It was further alleged in said motion that the garnishee, acting through its agent, H. S. Owens, sent an agent of the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky to the office of the clerk of the circuit court to investigate the matter and that such agent found among the papers in the cause an envelope from the garnishee containing a copy of the writ of garnishment served upon the garnishee, which envelope was postmarked Jackson, Mississippi, November 18, 1958, and was marked filed by the clerk on November 19, 1958, the aforesaid envelope being addressed to the Clerk of the Circuit Court, Pike County, Magnolia, Mississippi; that the records failed to disclose an answer of the garnishee on file in the cause; that the said Owens had a telephone conversation with the attorney for George in which the attorney told him that he would not take advantage of the fact that no answer to the writ of garnishment was shown to be timely filed, but that he would contact his client and then advise him further.

Owens testified that he then immediately contacted his attorney and filed a motion to set aside the default judgment, the same being filed on April 10, 1959. The said Owens further testified that when being apprised of the rendition of the default judgment and after in[716]*716vestigation in the circuit clerk’s office, he prepared an answer in which he denied that the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky was in any manner indebted to the said Stennett or had any property or effects in its hands and that he enclosed this answer in the aforesaid envelope which was received by the clerk; that this answer was sworn to before a justice of the peace on November 20, 1958, and the said Owens exhibited a copy thereof which was introduced in evidence. The said Owens further testified that when apprised of what had happened, he prepared the aforesaid answer and enclosed the same in the aforesaid envelope and that the copy thereof was found in his files together with a copy of a letter written to the circuit clerk advising the circuit clerk that he was enclosing an answer to the garnishment. The County Court of Pike County, after hearing the matter, overruled the motion of the garnishee to set aside and vacate the aforesaid default judgment. The said Standard Oil Company then appealed to the circuit court, and the circuit court reversed the judgment of the county court and entered an order setting aside and vacating the aforesaid default judgment, and from this order this appeal is prosecuted.

It is the contention of the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky that it made an attempt in good faith to answer the aforesaid garnishment, and that the county court was therefore in error in overruling its motion to set said default judgment aside. While the said Owens testified that the answer which he prepared and enclosed in his letter to the clerk was dated November 20, 1958, the record shows that the envelope containing only the copy of the writ of garnishment was postmarked at Jackson on November 18, 1958, and was received and filed by the clerk on November 19, 1958. Nothing other than the aforesaid envelope containing the copy of the writ of garnishment which had been served on the Standard Oil Company of Kentucky was filed in the cause. No at[717]*717tempt was made by the garnishee to set aside the default judgment until during the fourth term following the term of the court at which the said default judgment was rendered.

Section 2798 of the Mississippi Code of 1942 provides in its pertinent parts as follows: “If a garnishee personally summoned shall fail to answer as required by law, .... and he failed to show cause for vacating it, the court shall enter a judgment against him for the amount of plaintiff’s demand; and all costs and such judgment shall be final, unless cause be shown to the contrary during the same term, and execution shall issue thereon.” (Emphasis ours)

This Court has definitely held that the power of the court to set aside a default judgment ends with the term of the court at which it is rendered unless the facts in reference thereto make a case coming within the chancery court’s jurisdiction to set aside a judgment on the ground of fraud, accident or mistake. The record in this case is wholly free of any evidence showing fraud, accident or mistake.

Closely analagous to the facts of the case at bar is the case of Corinth State Bank v. Nixon, 144 Miss. 674, 110 So. 430. In that case it appeared that the garnishee prepared an answer on Saturday before the return day of the garnishment on the following Monday, and that said answer was duly signed and acknowledged and mailed to the clerk of the court on Saturday before the return day of the garnishment.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
124 So. 2d 858, 239 Miss. 712, 1960 Miss. LEXIS 346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/george-v-standard-oil-co-of-kentucky-miss-1960.