Etheredge v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 04 March 1930
• Docket Number: No. 20227.,20227.
• Citation: 41 Ga.App. 432,153 S.E. 230
• Parties: ETHEREDGE. v. WILSON.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

41 Ga.App. 432

153 S.E. 230

ETHEREDGE.

v.WILSON.

No. 20227.

Court of Appeals of Georgia,

Division No. 1.

March 4, 1930.

Rehearing granted April 16, 1930.

Judgment Adhered to on Rehearing May 14, 1930.

Syllabus by the Court.

The bona fide holder of a soldier's certificate under Michie's Code, § 1888, has the right to engage in the business of purchasing salaries and wages without paying a county or municipal license.

Syllabus by the Court.

A partial assignment of wages, not assented to by the debtor, will not support an action brought by the assignee against the assignor for a conversion of the wages assigned.

Syllabus by the Court.

The partial assignment of wages in this case did not put such title to the wages assigned in the assignee as will support the action for conversion brought against the assignor by the assignee, and the judge of the superior court erred in refusing to sanction the assignor's certiorari from the municipal court of Macon.

BLOODWORTH, J., dissenting.

Error from Superior Court, Bibb County; Malcolm D. Jones, Judge.

Action by E. P. Wilson against L. C. Etheredge. Judgment for plaintiff, defendant's certiorari was overruled, and defendant brings error.

Reversed.

E. P. Goodrum, of Macon, and J. L. R. Boyd, of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Luther U. Bioodworth, Miller & Lowrey, and E. W. Maynard, all of Macon, and R. R. Jackson and C. E. Moore, both of Atlanta, for defendant in error.

LUKE, J.

E. P. Wilson brought his action In the municipal court of Macon against L. C. Etheredge, alleging that the defendant had assigned to him $27.50 due defendant by the Central of Georgia Railway Company for wages or salary already earned by him in the employ of that company; that by virtue of said assignment the title to the money was in plaintiff; that defendant collected said sum from his employer and converted it to his own use by refusing to deliver it to plaintiff; and that defendant was liable to plaintiff in the sum of $27.50 because of said conversion. Defendant's demurrers were overruled, and the jury returned a verdict for plaintiff. The exception here is to the refusal of the judge of the superior court to sanction defendant's certiorari.

The demurrer raised the point that the petition set out no cause of action at law, because the action is predicated upon a partial assignment of wages, which conveyed no title to the money to plaintiff, and that jurisdiction of the case was in the superior court of Bibb county, and not in the municipal court of Macon.

The material part of the assignment is as follows:

"$27.50 Georgia, Bibb County.

"For value received, I hereby sell to Acme Investment Company, doing business in the City of Macon, Ga., an undivided interest in my account for wages or salary already by me earned from the 1st day of August, 1928, to the 27th day of August, 1928, in the capacity of Spec, said interest amounting to ——dollars, and due me by Central of Ga. Ry. Co.

"1 hereby direct my said employer to pay to Acme Investment Company said amount, * * *"

"This Is an absolute and unconditional sale of an undivided interest in said account and is not a loan or advance of money, and is not a discount, I am not a debtor to the purchaser. This is an original transaction, and is not a renewal or extension of any kind. In order to induce Acme Investment Com pany to make the purchase of said undivided interest in this account, I hereby state, and warrant to be true, that I am employed by said employer in the capacity above stated, that I was so employed during said time and while so employed I earned as wages or salary the said amount. I hereby authorize the purchaser of this account, in my name and stead, and as my attorney in fact, to sign my name to any and all checks, vouchers, receipts, and acquittances necessary and proper to be signed in order to collect said account and to evidence the payment of the same. It is understood by the undersigned that the said buyer and assignee has the option of notifying the party, firm or corporation to whom this is directed of the fact of this sale and assignment of money having been made to said buyer and assignee at any time said buyer and assignee may choose to do so. A duplicate of this bill of sale and assignment is by me waived.

"Given under my hand and seal this the 27th day of August, 1928.

"L C. Etheredge."

We do not think that the demurrer under consideration is good, for the reason that it does not appear from the pleadings and the copy of the assignment attached thereto that the paper is a partial assignment.

When this paper was offered in evidence it was objected to (1) because it was a partial assignment and never conveyed title to the $27.50, and (2) "because the body of the original assignment was in blank as to the amount alleged sold, and was too indefinite to be material as evidence."

The assignment speaks for itself, and was, we think, properly admitted in evidence over the objections interposed.

After the evidence had closed, defendant moved "to exclude the assignment * * * because it appears that the plaintiff was not a licensed and bonded buyer of salary and wages." It appearing, from the evidence, that E. P. Wilson, trading as Acme Investment Company, had a "veteran's or soldier's license from the ordinary of Bibb county, " the question is whether he was exempted from paying the license and giving bond.

The act of the General Assembly on this subject, as amended in 1919 (Ga. Laws 1919, p. 90, Michie's Code [1926], § 1888), reads as follows:

"Any disabled or indigent Confederate soldier or soldiers of the Seminole, Creek, or Cherokee Indian War, *...