Smith v. Welch

92 S.E.2d 297, 212 Ga. 345, 1956 Ga. LEXIS 365
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided April 9, 1956·No. 19282·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Candler, Justice.

The plaintiff brought common-law or fictitious ejectment against the defendants to recover possession of a small tract of land and a stated amount as mesne profits. The demise was laid in C. D. Craddock. The defendants filed a plea of not guilty. The plaintiff later amended his petition and laid a demise in Herman 0. Smith and reduced his claim for mesne profits. To this amendment the defendants filed no answer. The real parties to this litigation are adjacent landowners, each owning a part of land lot number 99 in district 14 of Fulton County, and the controversy respects the location of the boundary line between their tracts. The land of the real party plaintiff is a portion of and on the south part of lot 12 in North Hapeville Subdivision, and the land of the real parties defendant is a portion of and on the north part of the same lot. Neither party disputes the title of the other to his tract as a whole. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants have wrongfully taken possession of and ousted him from an area on the north side of his tract a strip which fronts nine feet on the west side of Springdale Road and “feathers” back 320 feet to a point on their true dividing line. He contends that the northeast corner of his tract is at a point on the west side of Springdale Road 290.5 feet south from the place where Springdale Road intersects the north original line separating lots 99 and 100 measured along the west side of Springdale Road. The defendants contend that the dividing line between their tract and the plaintiff’s is a straight line parallel with the north original line of the lot on which they are located, which extends west from a point on the west side of Springdale Road 290.5 feet south from the original north line of the lot. The evidence, oral and documentary, covers 325 pages of the record. When the introduction of evidence was concluded, both the plaintiff and the defendants moved for a directed verdict, and the trial judge directed a verdict for the defendants. The plaintiff moved for a new trial on the usual general grounds, and amended his motion by adding six special grounds, one of which alleges that the court erred in directing a verdict in favor of the defendants. His amended motion was denied, and the exception is to that judgment. Held:

1. Special grounds 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 complain of the admission, over the plaintiff’s objection of a bond for title and certain deeds respecting the land in question as well as adjacent property. These instruments were of aid in locating the boundary line in dispute. For that purpose they [346] were relevant and material, and the court did not err, as contended by the movant, in allowing them in evidence.

2. It is stated in the brief for the plaintiff in error that the original petition in this case was filed on July 1, 1952, but by error the demise was laid in the name of C. D. Craddock, “although the headings, pleadings and all service was laid in the name of Herman O. Smith”; that an amendment to the petition was filed on September 16, 1954, laying the demise in Herman O. Smith; and that the defendants filed no plea or answer to the amendment. Special ground 10 of the motion for new trial alleges that a verdict for the plaintiff should have been granted by the trial judge, since the defendants failed to admit that they had possession of the land in dispute when this litigation was instituted. This contention is not meritorious. In the first place, the defendants had previously filed a plea of not guilty — a plea of general issue, and it was not necessary for them to answer the plaintiff’s amendment. Hudson v. Hudson, 119 Ga. 637, 640 (46 S. E. 874); and in the second place, the consent rule embodied in Code § 33-111 is applicable to actions of ejectment brought in the fictitious form. Elliott v. Robinson, 192 Ga. 682 (16 S. E. 2d 433). In this State the consent rule is deemed by law to be filed in every ejectment case (Elliott v. Robinson, supra); and, as to the premises involved, it admits lease, entry, and ouster and requires the defendant to rely solely upon the merits of his title. Kauffman v. Deese, 205 Ga. 841 (3a) (55 S. E. 2d 353). And Code § 33-311 declares that in ejectment cases the fictitious forms in pleading shall be sufficient.

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Smith v. Welch, 92 S.E.2d 297, 212 Ga. 345, 1956 Ga. LEXIS 365 (Ga. 1956).

92 S.E.2d 297 (Smith v. Welch) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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