Vinson v. Citizens & Southern National Bank

69 S.E.2d 866, 208 Ga. 813, 1952 Ga. LEXIS 375
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 12, 1952
Docket17752
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 69 S.E.2d 866 (Vinson v. Citizens & Southern National Bank) 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
Vinson v. Citizens & Southern National Bank, 69 S.E.2d 866, 208 Ga. 813, 1952 Ga. LEXIS 375 (Ga. 1952).

Opinions

Atkinson, Presiding Justice.

(After stating the foregoing facts.) The original petition contained enough to amend by [817]*817(Code, § 81-1301; Calhoun v. Edwards, 202 Ga. 95 (2), 42 S. E. 2d, 426), and the motion to dismiss, on the ground that the action was barred by the statute of limitations, was met by the first amendment which alleged that the grantor, now deceased, never learned of the fraud perpetrated on her by the defendant. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in allowing the amendment, or in overruling the defendant’s renewed motion to dismiss, as to The Citizens & Southern National Bank, as guardian of Linton Stiles Harrison.

While the second amendment set forth an inconsistent reason for canceling the deed, yet, the objection to the allowance of this amendment did not seek to require the petitioner to elect which reason it was relying upon. See Saliba v. Saliba, 201 Ga. 577 (3) (40 S. E. 2d, 511). The amendment did not, as contended, set forth a new cause of action, nor did it add any new parties plaintiff. In the above circumstances, the trial court did not err in allowing the second amendment, or in overruling the defendant’s renewed motion to dismiss the petition.

The next insistence is that the trial court erred in refusing a motion of the defendant that The Citizen & Southern National Bank be nonsuited as administrator de bonis non with the will annexed of the estate of Mattie L. Yinson.

While the court had already sustained a motion to dismiss the bank as administrator de bonis non, still, had such motion been overruled, an exception to the refusal of a nonsuit will not be considered, where, after a verdict for the petitioner, the general grounds of the defendant’s motion for new trial complain that the verdict is contrary to the evidence and without evidence to' support it. Martin v. Yonce, 163 Ga. 694 (4) (137 S. E. 17); Southern Ry. Co. v. Slaton, 178 Ga. 314, 316 (173 S. E. 161); Waters v. Tillman, 194 Ga. 552 (2) (22 S. E. 2d, 173); Howard v. Lee, 208 Ga. 735 (69 S. E. 2d, 263).

The first special ground of the motion for new trial complains of the admission in evidence of a duly certified copy of a marriage certificate, showing that the defendant and Bertie Lee Wells were married in South Carolina on February 2, 1941. The marriage certificate was admissible, in support of the petitioner’s theory of the case, for the purpose of showing that fraud was perpetrated by the defendant upon the grantor in obtaining [818]*818the deed dated May 1, 1942, wherein it was recited that the conveyance was made in consideration of the love and affection that the grantor bore to her husband, the defendant.

The second special ground complains of the refusal to allow a witness for the defendant to testify that he recalled a conversation in 1942 between Mrs. Foster and the defendant, in the presence of the grantor, wherein Mrs. Foster accused the defendant of “lying up” with her sister (the grantor), and that the grantor did not deny her sister’s accusation. Mrs. Foster was not a party to the action, and any statement made by her to the defendant would have been hearsay. Furthermore, Mrs. Foster testified: “I don’t know if my sister was aware of the fact that she was divorced at the time of making this deed. . . I guess she must have been. . . She found him out before the last.”

Special grounds 3 to 8 inclusive except to the refusal of timely written requests to charge. “A request to charge the jury must be correct, and even perfect; otherwise refusal to give it is not error. It must be legal, apt, and precisely adjusted to some principle involved in the case, and be authorized by the evidence.” Lewis v. State, 196 Ga. 755 (3) (27 S. E. 2d, 659).

Ground 3 complains of the refusal to charge: “Equity gives no relief to one whose long delay renders the ascertainment of ti’uth difficult, though no legal limitation bars the right. . . The limitations herein provided shall apply equally to all courts; and in addition to the above, courts of equity may interpose an equitable bar, whenever, from the lapse of time and laches of the complainant, it would be inequitable to allow a party to enforce his legal rights.” The first sentence of this request is taken from Code § 37-119, and the second sentence from Code § 3-712. The limitations referred to in the latter portion of the request include various limitations of actions (many of which would not have been applicable to the present case) which are set out in Code §§ 3-701 to 3-711 inclusive. Furthermore, the language contained in the request, “the limitations herein provided shall apply equally to all courts,” without setting forth in such request what the preceding limitations were, would have been an incomplete statement of the law. The assignment of error is to the refusal to give the whole of the above request; and since [819]*819a portion of the charge was an incomplete statement of the law, the court did not err in refusing the request. Etheridge v. Hobbs, 77 Ga. 531, 534 (4) (3 S. E. 251).

The requested charge in ground 4 was: “Equity is ancillary, not antagonistic, to the law; hence equity follows the law where the rule of law is applicable, and the analogy of the law where no rule is directly applicable.” This request is taken from Code § 37-103. In charging on prescription, the court instructed the jury: “Prescription under color of title would become complete after seven years and by an analogy the period of limitation applicable to fraud complained of in this case is the same to that which is applied to an ordinary action for the recovery of land, to wit: seven years after the discovery of the fraud.” The court also charged: “If Vinson [the defendant] did go away and remained away and just came back occasionally and let his former wife, Mattie L. Vinson, operate the farm and turned the possession over to her for the particular piece of property while he was away and let her manage and collect rents and send the rents to him, and sell timber on the property, if you find any timber was sold, or if you find that she rented it and collected the rents and sent the money to him or part of the monies to him, if you find that, from the evidence, you should find a verdict in favor of the defendant.” The court having so instructed the jury, there was no occasion to charge Code § 37-103.

The requested charge in ground 5 was: “He who would have equity must do equity, and give effect to all equitable rights in the other party respecting the subject-matter of the suit.” This request is taken from Code § 37-104. There is no contention that the grantor received any money that she should have returned or tendered to the defendant. While the defendant averred in his answer that the deed constituted a gift to him at a time when the grantor was deeply obligated to him for assistance he had given her for many years in the management of her farm, nevertheless, there was no evidence to support this allegation. In the absence of any evidence on this question, the court did not err in refusing the request.

The requested charge in ground 6 was: “A gift by any person just arriving at majority, or otherwise peculiarly subject to be affected by such influences, to his parent, guardian, trustee, [820]

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Vinson v. Citizens & Southern National Bank
69 S.E.2d 866 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1952)

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Bluebook (online)
69 S.E.2d 866, 208 Ga. 813, 1952 Ga. LEXIS 375, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vinson-v-citizens-southern-national-bank-ga-1952.