Atlanta Joint Terminals v. Walton Discount Co.

• Decision Date: 16 November 1922
• Docket Number: 13797.
• Citation: 114 S.E. 908,29 Ga.App. 225
• Parties: ATLANTA JOINT TERMINALS v. WALTON DISCOUNT CO.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

114 S.E. 908

29 Ga.App. 225

ATLANTA JOINT TERMINALS v. WALTON DISCOUNT CO.

No. 13797.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, First Division

November 16, 1922

Syllabus by the Court.

The evidence demanded the judgment rendered in the municipal court, and the judge of the superior court properly overruled the certiorari.

Additional Syllabus by Editorial Staff.

The application made by one assigning his wages, the assignment itself, and the evidence held to show that the transaction was a sale, and not a loan or assignment as security for a loan, within Laws 1920, p. 215, regulating the business of making loans and taking assignments as security.

Where an assignment of wages was a sale and not security for a loan, the transaction was not within Laws 1920, p. 215, and the failure of the assignee to pay the license imposed by that act on those engaged in making loans on wages did not prevent collection of the wages assigned.

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; Geo. L. Bell, Judge.

Action by the Walton Discount Company against the Atlanta Joint Terminals. Judgment for plaintiff, and certiorari overruled and defendant brings error. Affirmed.

W. O Wilson, of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Jackson & Echols, of Atlanta, for defendant in error.

BLOODWORTH J.

The Walton Discount Company brought suit against the Atlanta Joint Terminals in the municipal court of Atlanta, upon a sale and assignment of wages made to Walton Discount Company by one Grant. Judgment was rendered against the defendant certiorari was sued out, the certiorari was overruled, and the defendant excepted.

The controlling issue in the case is whether or not the Walton Discount Company was precluded from collecting these wages because they had not paid the license due under the act regulating loan business. Ga. L. 1920, pp. 215-222. It was admitted by the plaintiff that it had not paid this license, and was not doing business under the provisions of this act. It was not contended that the plaintiff had not paid any other license, or that it was doing business without a license, and there was no issue as to that. The issue therefore resolves itself into the question whether or not the transaction under consideration was such an one as would come under the act referred to. This act is:

"An act to license and regulate the business of making loans * * * regulating the assignment of wages or salaries earned when taken as security for ary such loan." (Italics ours.)

The application of Grant to the Walton Discount Company is as follows:

"Application to sell salary or wage account. Georgia, Fulton County. The undersigned hereby makes application to Walton Discount Company to sell an undivided interest in my account for salary or wages already earned and to be earned by the undersigned in the employ of Atlanta Joint Terminals, in the capacity of switchman, under my contract of employment from February 1, 1921, to February 28, 1921. The account the undersigned desires to sell and assign is for the amount of $74.50, and, in order to induce the said buyer and assignee to buy said account, I hereby agree to take for the same the sum of $71. The undersigned further represents that there are no offsets, assignments, attachments, counterclaims or incumbrances of any character whatsoever against the account herein referred to, and that said account is true, just, and unpaid, and that the undersigned has not heretofore sold or assigned the same. It is distinctly understood by all

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