Herz v. Claflin Co.

29 S.E. 33, 101 Ga. 615, 1897 Ga. LEXIS 285
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided July 8, 1897·Published·Cited by 17 cases

Opinion

Atkinson, J.

1, 2. The repeated rulings of this court upon the questions of practice covered by the first two headnotes, which precede this opinion, render unnecessary an extended restatement of the reasons which have induced us to the conclusions reached; and we will, therefore, content ourselves with illustrating them by extracts from the motion for new trial, which will show the application of these rules to the record in the present case. There were a number of grounds of exception taken which fall within the rule announced in the first headnote, all of which contained a mere general objection to testimony which was admitted. All of them being similar in this respect, one example only is presented, and that is the example furnished by the first ground of the motion for new trial. It was as follows: “That the court erred in admitting, over the objection of defendants’ counsel, the testimony of the witness Fred A. Powers, as follows: That the firm of I. <fc S. Bing were subscribers to the Bradstreet Company ; that the firm of I. & S. Bing applied to the Bradstreet Company for information regarding the financial standing of Louis Herz, and that the firm received a statement in writing from said Bradstreet Company as to the financial condition of Louis Herz. That the firm of I. & S. Bing never had any transaction or dealings with the said Louis Herz before this time. That the firm placed implicit confidence in the statement, and consented to sell Louis Herz goods, believing his statement to be true. This firm would not have shipped goods to said Louis Herz had they not relied upon said statement, and would have extended him no credit whatever had they known the statement to be false. That this firm discovered the statement to be false on the 12th of September, 1893.” It will' be observed that there was no special reason submitted, by way of objection to the evidence, why it should be excluded by the court, and, therefore, none which this court can consider in reviewing the judgment of which complaint is made. It may have been objected to upon some ground which the court was authorized to overrule; and the burden being upon the party •alleging error to show it, it will be presumed that the objection actually made was not sound.

[617] The twelfth ground of the motion will serve as an illustration of the ruling announced in the second headnote. The ground was as follows: “Because the court erred in admitting in evidence the statement of the National Shoe and Leather Exchange, which was furnished to Frank & Adler, a copy of which is in the brief of evidence; the said Frank & Adler at the time not being parties to said case, and not seeking any relief against said defendants.” It has been repeatedly ruled that the proper place in which to specify the evidence, the admission or rejection of which is complained of, is in the ground of the motion for new trial. Identification of the particular evidence to which the objection refers is essential to the determination of the question as to whether the court erred in overruling the objection. It should be incorporated in the ground of the motion, because thus, in approving it, the court likewise identifies the evidence therein set out as that to which the objection related. If any other rule were adopted, this court, in looking through the great mass of documentary evidence introduced upon a protracted trial of complicated facts, might rest its judgment upon one document, while the objection really made in the court below might have related to another. An observance of these simple rules of practice will enable this court understandingly to review the rulings of trial judges.upon exceptions to testimony; and we commend their observance to the profession.

3, 4. We have carefully examined the voluminous record in this case, and find that the special questions of fact which were submitted to the jury were framed in accordance with, and authorized by, the pleadings and evidence in the case. There was sufficient evidence to support the verdict, and there is no reason why a new trial should be granted upon the facts of the case, or that the findings of the jury upon the questions of fact should be disturbed.

5. In addition to the exceptions taken in this case to the verdict, because of errors of law and errors of fact alleged to have been committed in reaching that verdict, there are certain other grounds of the motion which related to matters, occurring in the-course of the litigation subsequent to the rendi[618] tion of the verdict. Such errors of law can not be reached by a motion for a new trial. Such a motion embraces a re-examination of such errors of law and fact only as contributed to the verdict, and has been defined to be a re-examination of the facts only. Under our system of procedure, however, it extends beyond the mere examination of the facts, and may reach any error of law which, being committed on the trial of the case, contributed to bring about the verdict. To extend it to errors alleged to have been committed by the court subsequent to the rendition of the verdict would seem to be wholly unjustifiable. If the verdict was properly rendered, after a fair and legal trial, it would seem to be absurd to order a retrial of such questions because of mere errors of law committed after its rendition, and which in no way could contribute to bringing it about. Errors of the latter class are open to review by other means, and we are satisfied that they can not properly be considered on a motion for a new trial; therefore the trial judge committed no error in overruling the motion for a new trial, in so far as it rested upon such grounds.

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Herz v. Claflin Co., 29 S.E. 33, 101 Ga. 615, 1897 Ga. LEXIS 285 (Ga. 1897).

29 S.E. 33 (Herz v. Claflin Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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