Jones v. Lawman

194 S.E. 416, 56 Ga. App. 764, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 229
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedDecember 2, 1937
Docket26280
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 194 S.E. 416 (Jones v. Lawman) 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
Jones v. Lawman, 194 S.E. 416, 56 Ga. App. 764, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 229 (Ga. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

Broyles, C. J.

(After stating the foregoing facts.) This case was originally brought to the Supreme Court, and that court, in transferring the case to this court, said: “The petition, in substance, did no more than seek a money judgment upon a promissory note and to have the judgment declared a special lien upon the land. It did not. seek injunction, appointment of a receiver, or allege any other equitable ground of relief.” See 184 Ga. 25 (190 S. E. 607). Therefore, as stated by the Supreme Court in transferring the case, “the case before this court presents a controversy between the payee of the note and its maker, who was also the grantor in the deed to secure debt, relative to whether the defendant is liable on the note.”

The averment in the defendant’s demurrer to the petition that the petition as a whole set out no cause of action, is without merit. The principal question raised by the defendant’s demurrer to the petition is, could the plaintiff properly maintain an action on the note in the courts of this State, it appearing from the petition that plaintiff brought the suit as receiver of a mortgage pool of a bank in Tennessee, under appointment of a court of chancery in that State, and there being no allegation therein of any other authority for the receiver to bring the suit. The note sued on did not come into the hands of the plaintiff as a part of the assets of his [769]*769trust. It was executed by the defendant in favor of the plaintiff receiver after his appointment as such, and the receiver owned the note. The rule, urged by the defendant, that a chancery receiver can not sue in the courts of a foreign jurisdiction by virtue of his appointment alone, does not apply where the foreign receiver is vested, expressly or by necessary' implication, with title to the subject-matter of the litigation (Bullock v. Oliver, 155 Ga. 151, 116 S. E. 293) or where he, as receiver, has acquired title by conveyance. 53 C. J. 395; Oliver v. Clark, 106 Fed. 402. A foreign receiver may institute and maintain in this State a suit on a note made payable to him in a transaction taking place after his appointment. Bestatement Conflict of Laws, 660, 682. The note sued on was payable to “E. Ii. Lawman, receiver,” and the transaction having occurred a-fier he was appointed receiver, and title to the note being in the receiver, he had a right to institute suit thereon in the courts of this State, and to do so without alleging who was interested in the mortgage pool of the bank. It follows that the court did not err in overruling the defendant’s demurrer to the petition.

In considering the assignment of error on the striking of defendant’s answer as amended, it should be borne in mind that if any part of a pleading sets forth a cause of action or a valid defense it is error to sustain a general demurrer and strike the same in its entirety. Blaylock v. Hackel, 164 Ga. 257 (5) (138 S. E. 333); Train v. Emerson, 137 Ga. 730 (2) (74 S. E. 241). The second paragraph of the demurrer to the amended answer, alleging that the defense of failure of consideration and that of extension of time of payment are inconsistent, is without merit as a ground of dismissalj and the fact that the amended answer set up inconsistent defenses did not render the same subject to general demurrer. A defendant may file one or more defenses without waiving the benefit of either (Code, § 81-301), and his “answer may contain as many several matters as the defendant may think necessary for his defense.” Code, § 81-305. See also Western & Atlantic R. Co. v. Pitts, 79 Ga. 532 (3), 536 (4 S. E. 921); Mendel v. Miller, 134 Ga. 610 (2) (68 S. E. 430); White Sewing Machine Co. v. Horkan, 7 Ga. App. 283 (2) (66 S. E. 811); Watters v. Freeman, 16 Ga. App. 595 (2) (85 S. E. 931). The answer, as amended, alleged that the note sued: on being executed in Ten[770]*770nessee where the legal rate of interest is six per cent., and the note providing for eight per cent, interest, and defendant having paid interest at eight per cent, on said note, that said interest received and retained by plaintiff constituted a charge of usury and relieved the defendant of the payment of any interest. The third and fourth paragraphs of plaintiff’s demurrer allege that such allegations fail to meet the objections raised by the original demurrer to the answer, fail to set up a defense to an unconditional contract in writing, undertake to set up new matter, and fail to plead the law of Tennessee showing that the legal rate of interest is six per cent. Where a note is executed and made payable in another State, even though secured by a deed to land in this State, and suit is brought on the note in this State, the rate of interest on the note is governed by the usury laws of the'sister State. Goodrich v. Williams, 50 Ga. 425; Thomas v. Clarkson, 125 Ga. 72, 77 (54 S. E. 77, 6 L. R. A. (N. S.) 658). This being true, the provision of law applicable to the transaction in the neighboring State must be made to appear. Flournoy v. First National Bank of Indiana, 78 Ga. 222 (7), 229 (2 S. E. 547), s. c., 79 Ga. 810 (7) (2 S. E. 547); Odom v. New England Mortgage Security Co., 91 Ga. 505 (18 S. E. 131). Since the courts of this State will not take cognizance of the interest or usury laws of Tennessee, it is essential that the defendant, if he wishes to avail himself of the defense of usury, plead and prove the laws of Tennessee in this respect, and that such laws were in force at the time of the execution of the note. Thomas v. Clarkson, supra; Southern Express Co. v. Hanaw, 134 Ga. 445 (7) (67 S. E. 944, 137 Am. St. R. 227); Independent Order Puritans v. Cadden, 25 Ga. App. 27 (102 S. E. 454); Odom v. New England Mortgage Security Co., supra; Craven v. Bates, 96 Ga. 78 (23 S. E. 202); Champion v. Wilson, 64 Ga. 184; Code, § 57-106. The allegations of the answer, as amended, relative to the charge of usury, under the authorities above cited, were insufficient to meet the demurrer thereto.

Further testing the defendant’s amended answer as against the plaintiff’s demurrer, it is clear his averment in his original answer that “for want of sufficient information, defendant can neither admit nor deny the allegations of the fourth paragraph of plaintiff’s petition,” which fourth paragraph of the petition set out [771]*771that the defendant executed the described note sued on, is insufficient. “Where facts are charged to be within the knowledge of a party, and where from all the circumstances such knowledge is necessarily presumed, and he fails to answer altogether, or makes an evasive answer, the charge is to be taken as true.” Code, § 81-308. The allegations of the answer as a whole show that the defendant, for lack of sufficient information, did not know whether he owed the amount called for by the note, but he is presumed to know whether he executed the note, since there is no averment explaining his ignorance of that alleged fact. Smith v. Champion, 102 Ga. 92 (2) (29 S. E. 160); Ten-Fifty Ponce de Leon v. Citizens & Southern Bank, 170 Ga. 642 (2); Raleigh & Gaston R. Co. v. Pullman Co., 122 Ga. 700 (5) (50 S. E. 1008); Hudson v. Hudson, 119 Ga.

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Bluebook (online)
194 S.E. 416, 56 Ga. App. 764, 1937 Ga. App. LEXIS 229, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-lawman-gactapp-1937.