Steele v. Graves

127 S.E. 465, 160 Ga. 120, 1925 Ga. LEXIS 99
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 11, 1925
DocketNo. 4644
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 127 S.E. 465 (Steele v. Graves) 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
Steele v. Graves, 127 S.E. 465, 160 Ga. 120, 1925 Ga. LEXIS 99 (Ga. 1925).

Opinion

Hines, J.

1. The defendant in error moves to dismiss the bill of exceptions on the ground that the evidence was not properly briefed, the brief consisting in part of a transcript of the stenographer’s notes of the evidence in full and of various documents and judicial proceedings in full. Held, that as there are questions which can be decided without reference to the evidence, the motion to dismiss the bill of exceptions will be denied. Miller v. Hines, 145 Ga. 616 (89 S. E. 689).

2. The petition in this case set forth a cause of action, and was good against a general demurrer.

3. The court below properly overruled the grounds of special demurrer to the petition.

(a) It is only necessary to set out such writings in the petition, or to attach them as exhibits, if they constitute the cause of action sued upon or the basis of the relief prayed. East Atlanta Land Co. v. Mower, 138 Ga. 380 (2) (75 S. E. 418).

(5) The point that these paragraphs did not state the substance of the writings or proceedings therein referred to with sufficient clearness to inform the defendant of their character is not raised by these special demurrers. —

(e) Voluminous pleadings and records of the same court, referred to by the plaintiff in his petition in a pending suit, may be considered by the court as if they were attached as exhibits, although generally such pleadings and records should be attached as exhibits to the complaint. Equity Rule 3, Civil Code (1910), § 6321; Demere v. Scranton, 8 Ga. 43; Holliday v. Riordan, 12 Ga. 417; Patterson v. Turner, 62 Ga. 674; Graham v. Dahlonega &c. Co., 71 Ga. 296; Millbank v. Penniman, 73 Ga. 136; Lyons v. Planters’ Loan & Savings Bank, 86 Ga. 485 (12 S. E. 882, 12 L. R. A. 155); Moody v. Muscogee Mfg. Co., 134 Ga. 721, 730 (68 S. E. 604, 20 Ann. Cas. 301).

(d) Whether such pleadings and records should have been attached as exhibits or not, the right result of a case on its merits will not be disturbed because such documents were not annexed as exhibits. Lyons v. Planters’ Bank, supra.

(e) Other grounds of special demurrer to the petition are not insisted on in the brief of counsel for the plaintiff in error, and for this reason we treat them as abandoned. It follows from what is stated above that the judge did not err in overruling the special demurrers to the petition.

4. The court charged the jury as follows: “Where as to lands purchased by the husband with funds belonging to his wife,'to which he took title in his own name, a resulting trust immediately arises in favor of the wife, she can not assert ownership thereof as against a third person, who, in ignorance and without notice of the secret equity and on faith of the husband’s apparent title, makes to him in good faith a loan secured by a mortgage covering the land so held in trust. Under such circumstances the mortgagee, to the extent of his interest in the lands mortgaged, stands upon the same footing as a bona fide purchaser without notice.” The defendant, Minnie L. Steele, excepts to this charge, upon the grounds: (1) It was not adjusted to the pleadings and evidence in the case; (2) the wife could not be estopped from as[121]*121serting lier title to the lands by any act of her husband, unless such act was authorized by her or she had knowledge thereof; and (3) a married woman can not be estopped from asserting her rights as owner of the property, except by.her own acts, and the evidence in this case shows that she did nothing whatever to induce Pitts, as trustee, to make the loan, and made no representation as to the title, and did not acquiesce in any representation made by her husband. Held: Where a husband and wife are in possession of land and the record title thereto is in the husband, who borrows money from another and executes his deed to such land to the lender to secure the money so borrowed, the title of such lender is superior to the equitable title of the wife, of which the lender had no notice, growing out of the fact that the wife’s money had paid for the land and that the title thereto should have been conveyed to her instead of to her husband. Zimmer v. Dansby, 56 Ga. 79; Lewis v. Equitable Mortgage Co., 94 Ga. 572 (3) (21 S. E. 224); Parker v. Barnesville Savings Bank, 107 Ga. 650 (34 S. E. 365); Austin v. Southern Home &c. Asso., 122 Ga. 439 (4) (50 S. E. 382); Talley v. Mozley, 149 Ga. 529 (101 S. E. 120). In Dodd v. Bond, 88 Ga. 355 (14 S. E. 581), the holder of the legal title had conveyed it to the holder of the equitable title before the creditor had obtained any lien or judgment upon the property. In Latham v. Latham, 98 Ga. 477 (25 S. E. 505), the purchaser from the husband took with full knowledge of the wife’s equity. In Hunt v. Doyal, 128 Ga. 416 (57 S. E. 489), the husband conveyed to the wife property in recognition of her equitable right thereto growing out of the fact that it had been purchased with her money. This court held that in doing so he performed both a legal and a moral duty, but that his conveyance to the wife would be subject to the rights of creditors who had given credit to the husband on the faith of his ownership of the property and had been thereby misled. Other eases relied on by counsel for the wife in this ease are easily distinguishable from the present case. It follows from the above ruling that the court did not err in the above charge.

5. The court charged the jury as follows: “In considering the testimony, it is your duty to reconcile the evidence without imputing perjury to any witness, if you can do so. The rules of law are that you look to the witness [witnesses] having the best opportunity to know the facts about which they testify and the least inducement to swear falsely.” The defendant,- Minnie L. Steele, excepted to this charge on the ground that it is an incorrect statement of the law. Held, that this charge was misleading and erroneous. In the first place, it omitted the qualification that the witnesses must be of equal credibility. L. & N. R. Co. v. Rogers, 136 Ga. 674 (3) (71 S. E. 1102); N., C. & St. L. Ry. v. Paris, 138 Ga. 864 (76 S. E. 357); Alabama Great Southern R. Co. v. Brock, 139 Ga. 248 (77 S. E. 20). Besides, the language, “the rules of law are that you look to the witness having the best opportunity to know the facts about which they testify and the least ’inducement to swear falsely,” even if this instruction had been accompanied with the foregoing qualification, would have been erroneous, because it was calculated to induce the jury to believe that they must believe such witness when the law is that they may believe him. This error would require the grant of a new trial but for the conclusion reached by us that a finding in [122]*122favor of the plaintiff was demanded under the pleadings and the evidence.

6. The court did not err in failing to charge the jury that “This is in effect a suit in ejectment; and if the plaintiff recovers, he must recover upon the strength of his own title, and not upon any weakness of his adversary’s.”

7.

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Bluebook (online)
127 S.E. 465, 160 Ga. 120, 1925 Ga. LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/steele-v-graves-ga-1925.