Georgia Power Co. v. Chapman

168 S.E. 131, 46 Ga. App. 582, 1933 Ga. App. LEXIS 143
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided February 11, 1933·No. 22462·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

Jenkins, P. J.

Georgia Power Company, a corporation chartered under the laws of Georgia, sought to condemn an easement for a right of way across certain lands in Campbell, now Fulton county, belonging to the defendant, J. M. Chapman, under the Civil Code (1910), § 5206 et seq., for the purpose of constructing, operating, and maintaining a transmission line or lines, and protecting the same and keeping the said right of way clear of trees and other incumbrances or obstructions, and for the uses necessary for such purposes; the amount of interest to be condemned being an easement for á right of way across the land, with' the right to erect and maintain towers, frames, or poles, and stretch wires for transmission of eleptric energy from one tower to another across the land, and to enter upon such right of way to inspect, rebuild, renew, repair, and operate such fixtures and appliances; and a notice to this purpose was served upon the defendant. Assessors were duly appointed, and they selected a third. The assessors awarded the defendant the sum of $750; and from this award an appeal was taken to a jury in the superior court of Fulton county. On the trial of the case in the superior court the jury found for Chapman the sum of $1750, and- judgment was entered accordingly. The power company made a motion for a new trial, upon general grounds and various special grounds, which was overruled, and the movant excepted.

The evidence authorized the verdict.

In the first special ground of the motion for new trial complaint is made that the trial court erred in charging the jury as [584]*584follows: “Evidence has been adduced before you by witnesses termed experts, and I instruct you, in this connection, that, while in cases such as the one now being tried the law receives the evidence of men expert in certain lines as to their opinions- derived from their knowledge of particular matters, the ultimate weight which is to be given to the testimony of expert witnesses is a question to be determined by the jury. In other words, the testimony of an expert, like that of any other witness, is to be received by jnu and given such weight as you think it is properly entitled to; but you are not bound or concluded by the testimony of any witnesses, expert or otherwise.” The grounds of complaint are, first, that this charge had the effect of authorizing the jury to exclude all oral testimony if they saw fit, expert or otherwise, and to make a verdict independently and to the exclusion of witnesses, either from their own knowledge or such other sources as they saw fit. We have compared the above-quoted language, as given in the motion for new trial, with that contained in the record of the court’s charge itself. In the record of the charge the last clause in the above quotation appears as follows: “but you are not bound or concluded bv the testimony of any witness [singular], expert or otherwise.” The language disclosed by the record will prevail over that stated in the motion for a new trial. Correctly and reasonably interpreted, the charge complained of amounted to an instruction to the jury that they were not bound to accept the testimony of any particular witness, expert or otherwise; and did not amount to an instruction that they might disregard all the testimony of all the witnesses, expert or otherwise.

The second complaint against this excerpt from the charge is to the effect that it tends to discredit the testimony of an expert witness, thereby depriving movant of the benefit of his expert witness. We do not think it is subject to this complaint; it simply stated to the jury the legal basis for the introduction of any expert testimony at all; and then instructed the jury that it was for them to give such weight to the testimony of experts and unexperts alike as they ■might see fit. It did not, in our opinion, in any way discredit the testimony of the expert, nor did it deprive movant of the benefit of such expert testimony. See Minchew v. Nahunta Lumber Co., 5 Ga. App. 154 (4) (62 S. E. 716); Morris Storage & Transfer Co. v. Wilkes, 1 Ga. App. 751, 752 (58 S. E. 232); Baker v. Richmond [585]*585City Mill Works, 105 Ga. 225 (31 S. E. 426); Rouse v. State, 135 Ga. 227 (69 S. E. 180); Alabama Great Southern Ry. Co. v. McKenzie, 139 Ga. 410 (3) (77 S. E. 647, 45 L. R. A. (N. S.) 18); Hall v. General Accident &c. Cor., 16 Ga. App. 66 (2) (85 S. E. 600).

In the second special ground of the motion complaint is made that the court erred in charging the jury as follows: “Eemote or speculative or possible damages are not to be allowed in considering the maintenance and operation of the lines or poles or wires by the company.” Movant concedes that this excerpt is correct, “as far as it goes,” but contends that it limits the exclusion of such remote or speculative or possible damages to the maintenance and operation of the line, whereas it should also exclude remote or speculative or possible damages alleged to arise from the acquisition of the right of way itself, as there was evidence of damage due to the presence of the liigh-tension line, and also of the taking of a strip of land like this independently of the line to be located thereon. It is contended that under this excerpt the jury were “authorized to believe that such damages (remote or speculative or possible) might be considered and allowed except in estimating consequential damages, if any, due to maintenance and operation.” The attack here made is upon a particular excerpt from the charge. There is no independent exception to a failure to charge. It is conceded that the excerpt excepted to is correct as far as it goes, but that it did not go far enough'. If it is not complete in that it excludes some other or additional proposition necessar}'- to render the charge given legal, it is not correct in and of itself. If it is complete in and of itself as given, and sets forth a correct principle of law, then no attack upon it will justify setting the verdict and judgment aside merely because the court failed to charge some other similar or related proposition in the same excerpt excepted to. The language actually employed does not have the effect of excluding the proposition which movant contends should have been embodied. See Central of Ga. Ry. Co. v. Hartley, 25 Ga. App. 110 (10), 113 (103 S. E. 259). This being true, the exception is without merit. It was said by this court in Adams v. State, 34 Ga. App. 144, 145 (128 S. E. 924), that “it is well settled by repeated rulings of the Supreme Court and of this court that an excerpt from a charge, wherein a complete proposition is stated, is not erroneous merely because it fails [586]*586to embrace an instruction which would have been appropriate in connection with that proposition. To reach the failure so to charge, a direct and independent assignment of error, complaining of such failure, is necessary.”

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Georgia Power Co. v. Chapman, 168 S.E. 131, 46 Ga. App. 582, 1933 Ga. App. LEXIS 143 (Ga. Ct. App. 1933).

168 S.E. 131 (Georgia Power Co. v. Chapman) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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