O'Neill Manufacturing Co. v. Harris

56 S.E. 739, 127 Ga. 640, 1907 Ga. LEXIS 446
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 27, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 56 S.E. 739 (O'Neill Manufacturing Co. v. Harris) 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
O'Neill Manufacturing Co. v. Harris, 56 S.E. 739, 127 Ga. 640, 1907 Ga. LEXIS 446 (Ga. 1907).

Opinion

Cobb, P. J.

(After stating the facts.)

1. The motion for a new trial contained the usual ■ general grounds, and counsel for plaintiff in' error, in their brief, argue the question whether the property for which the forthcoming bonds were given was subject to the executions which had been levied thereon, contending that the evidence shows that it was not. It appeared, from the evidence, that the claim had been dismissed by the justice’s court wherein it was pending; and there was nothing to show that it had ever been renewed. The question of the title to the property was involved in' the claim case, but was not involved in the suit on the forthcoming bonds. The very question which counsel seek to make here was decided in a former suit between the same parties on these same forthcoming bonds. O’Neill Mfg. Co. v. Harris, 120 Ga. 467. There the question arose upon a demurrer to the petition, and it was held that “A petition in such a case is not defective in failing to allege that the property in controversy is that of the plaintiff [defendant] in execution.” Mr. Justice Candler, after stating that the ground of the demurrer above indicated was not good, said: ’“In an action'on a forthcoming bond no issue can properly be raised as to the title to the property involved. The only question to be decided is whether or not there has been a breach of the bond.” He cited Anderson v. Banks, 92 Ga. 121, quoting from the opinion of Mr. Chief Justice Bleckley, delivered therein. That case was an action upon a forthcoming bond, taken in á claim case, wherein the trial court had granted a nonsuit upon the ground that the property levied upon was not subject to the execution; and it was'held that this question was not in the case, that the question of a breach of the bond did not in any way involve the title, but only the forthcoming of'the* property at the time and place of sale. “When personal property lévied upon under executions is claimed and replevied by the claimant, and, at the trial of the case'judgment is entered dismissing the claim and ordering the execution to proceed, this is so far an adjudication that the property is subject to the execution as to render the claimant and the surety on the, replevy bond liable thereon for a failure to deliver the property to the levying officer at the time and place of sale, he having duly readvertised the prop[642]*642erty for sale after the rendition of the judgment above mentioned, and no second claim having been filed.” Williams v. Empire Printing Co., 97 Ga. 445.

2. Error was assigned because’ the court admitted the two executions in evidence, over the objections that the same were satisfied by entries of levies, previously made, unexplained, and that the executions had not been entered on the general excution docket of Floyd county, and were not properly backed. In this suit, the defendant could not question the validity of the levies upon the property for the forthcoming of which it had given the claim bonds. In a case of this character, “Neither the legality of the levy nor the authority of the officer to make it is an issuable fact, these issues being concluded by the judgment in the claim case.” Oliver v. Warren, 124 Ga. 549. The case just cited is reported in 4 L. R. A. (N. S.), 1020-1023, and in the “Case note” thereto appended it is said: “It is very generally held that an obligor, whether principal or surety, in a forthcoming bond in which a levy is acknowledged, will not be allowed to attack the levy or the authority of the officer making it, in an action upon the bond;” and numerous cases from other jurisdictions, as well as some of our own, are cited to this effect. Tt follows that the court did not err in the ruling complained of.

3. Error was also assigned because the court admitted in evidence “one of the original advertisements under which it was claimed that the property for which the bonds were given was advertised for sale on the fourth day of January, 1905. The defendant had objected to the introduction of the paper, upon the ground that it was not shown that W. M. Byars had any authority to sell the property;” and because of insufficient description of the property advertised. The advertisement in question was signed, “W. M. Byars, L. C.” If any proof were needed of the authority of Byars, as a lawful constable of Floyd county, to advertise and sell the property, it was supplied by Iris testimony, which was undisputed. The advertisement described the property exactly as it was described in the respective levies under which the forthcoming bonds were given, and exactly as it was described in such bonds. The claimant was clearly estopped from questioning the sufficiency of the description, after having both claimed the property under such description and given bonds for the forthcoming of property [643]*643thus described. In this connection see Garner v. Clark, 115 Ga. 666.

4. The court permitted the constable, Byars, “to testify, over objection by defendant’s counsel, that he had posted similar notices to that introduced in evidence at two other places,” the objection being “that the notices themselves would be the best evidence. The witness testified that he remembered that he had destroyed one of the notices and he did not know what had become of the third one. The court thereupon permitted the witness to testify that he had posted three notices with the same contents as the one introduced in evidence.” Error was assigned upon this ruling; Clearly the evidence as to the contents of the paper which had been destroyed was admissible. We think, however, that the loss or destruction of the third “notice” should have been shown before evidence as to its contents was allowed. So far as -appeared from the constable’s testimony, that paper might still have been posted where he had placed it, and, therefore, easily accessible; and being no longer of use as an advertisement of the sale, it could have been taken down to be used in evidence. Evidence that it could not be found where it had been posted, and that the constable who posted it did not know what had become of it, would have made out a prima facie case of its loss or destruction. But the constable did not testify that he had made any effort whatever to find it. As it did not appear that this paper was inaccessible to the diligence of the plaintiff, evidence of its contents was inadmissible.

5. The court also permitted this witness to testify “that the places where he had posted the three notices were public places,” over the objection that the question whether they were or not was one to be decided by the jury, “and that the witness should state the facts and let the court and jury decide whether said places were public places.” We think the court erred in this ruling. The question whether the places where the notices had been posted were public places was one for the jury, and not for the witness. It was not a question for opinion evidence, though the witness gave the facts upon which he based his opinion. “The opinion of a witness is not admissible in evidence when all the facts and circumstances are capable of being clearly detailed and described so that the jurors may be able readily to form correct conclusions therefrom.” Mayor of Milledgeville v. Wood, 114 Ga. 370; Southern Mutual [644]*644Ins. Co. v. Hudson, 115 Ga. 638; Sumner v.

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Bluebook (online)
56 S.E. 739, 127 Ga. 640, 1907 Ga. LEXIS 446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oneill-manufacturing-co-v-harris-ga-1907.