Jackson v. Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Co.

63 S.E. 841, 132 Ga. 127, 1909 Ga. LEXIS 51
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 20, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 63 S.E. 841 (Jackson v. Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson v. Georgia Southern & Florida Railway Co., 63 S.E. 841, 132 Ga. 127, 1909 Ga. LEXIS 51 (Ga. 1909).

Opinion

Lumpkin, J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.)

1-3. The bill of exceptions tendered by the plaintiff was signed December 17, 1907, and was filed in the office of the clerk of this court on December 37. On January 3, 1908, a petition was presented to the judge, which alleged, that almost thirty days after the grant of the nonsuit one of the plaintiff’s counsel dictated from memory the brief of evidence contained in the bill of exceptions which had been certified by the presiding judge; that such brief was not made from the stenographic report of the official court stenographer, although the case was reported in detail by him, but was made up entirely from the memory of the attorney; that it was not a correct brief of the evidence adduced at the trial [132]*132of the case, but was inadvertently certified by the judge as true';, that no separate brief of evidence was filed, but the bill of exceptions purported to contain the evidence; that the defendant had procured from the official stenographer a transcript of the evidence adduced at the trial, and had made a brief thereof which was presented with the petition for approval; that it was practically impossible to present only a supplement to the brief of evidence as contained in the bill of. exceptions, and therefore it was prayed that the brief of evidence then presented be certified and that the clerk be required to transmit such brief to the Supreme Court “after the same has been approved and made a part of the record in said case.” The presiding judge passed an order stating that he certified that the allegations in the petition were true, and that the brief of evidence to which this certificate was attached was a true and correct brief of the evidence, oral and documentary, adduced at the trial of the case; that it was impossible simply to supplement the brief as contained in the original bill of exceptions, and he therefore ordered the full and correct brief of the evidence to be transmitted to the Supreme Court “as a part of the record in said case.” It was ordered that the attached brief be filed as a part of the record, and that the clerk be directed to make out “a true copy of said brief, together with a true copy of the petition and of this order and certificate, and certify the same as such, and transmit the same to the Supreme Court of Georgia, to be considered as part of the record in said case, which was carried to the Supreme Court of Georgia upon bill of exceptions sued out by Josephine Jackson as plaintiff in error.” In accordance with this order the derk transmitted to this court, on January 10, a certified copy of such order and certificate and also a certified copy of the brief of evidence which appears to have been approved by the judge and ordered filed as a part of the record on January 2.

Prior to 1905 the Civil Code, §5536, par. 1, only provided for transmitting to this court additional portions .of the record which had not been required to be sent up by specification made by the plaintiff in error. If a brief of the evidence had been approved and filed as a part of the record, it could be transmitted on application and order as other desired portions of the record might be. The authority of the judge was-confined to ordering “the whole or any part of the record sent up by the clerk.” There was no authority. [133]*133for sending np evidence which did not form a part of the record, or for creating an additional record by making up and filing a brief of evidence after the case had been carried to the Supreme Court. The act of 1905 (Acts 1905, p. 84) amended the section above cited, by adding thereto the following language: “And if from the main or cross-bill of exceptions, in any case in which no brief of evidence is made and filed as a part of the record, there is omitted any material evidence, and the judge trying the case having inadvertently certified said bill of exceptions as true,'then within twenty days from the date of the passage of this act as to cases now pending, and within twenty days from the date of service of bill of exceptions in all future oases, the trial judge may, on his own motion, make a supplemental certificate of the evidence so omitted, and said supplemental certificate, together with the evidence so certified, shall form a part of said original main or cross-bill of exceptions, and be so considered by the Supreme Court; and immediately upon the filing of said supplemental certificate with the clerk, he shall transmit same to the Supreme Court, in the same manner as now provided for with reference to transmission of bills of exceptions.” This provided for cases where there was no brief of the evidence filed. Thus the section of the code as it stood before this act was passed made provision for sending up additional evidence as a part of the record, where it was a part of the record. This act made provision for sending up additional evidence omitted from the bill of exceptions, where such evidence was not a part of the record by reason of having been filed as a brief of evidence. ' It authorized a species of amendment to the bill of exceptions by adding evidence omitted from the original bill or cross-bill. It never contemplated that, after the case had been brought to this court, additional record should be made in the superior court by making up and filing there a brief of evidence which had never existed before, and causing it to be transmitted by the clerk as a part of the record for consideration by this court. The omitted evidence is to be certified by the judge, filed with the clerk, and transmitted by the latter to this court as an addition or supplement .to the bill of exceptions. The paper brought to this court should have upon it the sanction of the judge’s signature, as -the bill of exceptions should have. The clerk should certify and transmit the original paper signed by the judge, [134]*134not a copy of it. Here no brief of evidence had been filed at the time when the bill of exceptions was certified and transmitted to this court. There was no record containing the evidence, and it conld not be required to be sent up as additional record, under the provisions of the code prior to the act of 1905. What purports to be a brief of evidence, which it is desired t& practically substitute in lieu of the evidence set out in the bill of exceptions, was not sent up as provided by the last-mentioned act. The effort was to make additional record after the case had left the trial court, and have it sent up to this court as record. The additional evidence does not come here over the judge’s original signature, as the act of 1905 contemplated, when it allowed him to-correct omissions in the evidence contained in the bill of exceptions. He approved a brief of the evidence, and directed it to be filed with the clerk of the superior court, and to become a part of the record of that court; and that a certified copy thereof and of his order and certificate be transmitted to the Supreme Court. This was not a compliance with the act of 1905. The Civil Code, §5529, declares: “If the plaintiff in error shall so elect, he may have such brief of so much of the evidence as is necessary to a-clear understanding of the errors complained of, approved by the judge, and made a part of the record and sent up by the clerk as a part thereof, rather than have the same incorporated in the bill of exceptions.” But this must be done before the bill of exceptions is signed, so that such brief of evidence may be specified, to be sent up as a part of the record then existing. It does not authorize the plaintiff in error tp tender and have certified a bill, of exceptions, and afterwards make up his brief of evidence.

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Bluebook (online)
63 S.E. 841, 132 Ga. 127, 1909 Ga. LEXIS 51, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-v-georgia-southern-florida-railway-co-ga-1909.