Ferrell v. E. W. Greenway & Co, (No. 3843.)

• Decision Date: 14 February 1924
• Docket Number: (No. 3843.)
• Citation: 122 S.E. 198,157 Ga. 535
• Parties: FERRELL. v. E. W. GREENWAY & CO. et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

157 Ga. 535

122 S.E. 198

FERRELL.

v.E. W. GREENWAY & CO. et al.

(No. 3843.)

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Feb. 14, 1924.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; John D. Humphries, Judge.

Action by J. R. Ferrell against E. W. Greenway & Co. and others. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed with directions.

J. R. Ferrell instituted an action against E. W. Greenway & Co., the Federal Investment Company, the Walton Discount Company, the Union Investment Company, and Lee & Co. The petition, including the prayers, alleged the following:

"(1) That all of above-named defendants are residents of said state and county.

"(2) That all of said defendants are engaged in the business of loaning money and dealing in salary assignments in sums or amounts of $300 and less.

"(3) That petitioner is an employee of the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company, and as such employee earns a salary of approximately $200 per month.

"(4) That said Seaboard Air Line Railway Company has rules and regulations whereby, if employees of said company are garnished more than a certain number of times, such employees are dismissed from the services of said company, and also said rules and regulations of said company provide that, no matter in what amount or amounts are garnished, said company holds up all money owing by said company to such employee until final judgment has been entered on such garnishment proceedings.

"(5) That there exists in this state, between the various and different brotherhoods of railway employees and the railway companies, contracts whereby an employee discharged from the services of one railway cannot enter the services of another railway in the same earning capacity he occupied with the railway company from whose services he had been discharged, but such discharged employee is compelled to commence anew as an unskilled and inexperienced employee, and at a great financial loss.

"(6) That petitioner has been in the employment of the said Seaboard Air Line Railway Company for a period of more than 10 years, and by reason of such length of continuous service now holds, by reason of his seniority of service, a preferred position with said Seaboard Air Line Company, which in case of his discharge he would lose, and also the wages earned from such preferred position.

"(7) That all of said rules, customs, regulations, and results are known to all of said defendants, and by them used to extort unconscionable interest on loans made at highly usurious and illegal rates.

"(8) That for more than a year your petitioner has paid monthly to each and all of said defendants 20 per cent. or more, on the loans or advancements made by them to your petitioner, and such monthly payments have more than paid off or discharged the principal sums or amounts loaned or advanced by said defendants to your petitioner, together with the legal rates of interest.

"(9) That neither of said defendants have complied with the law authorizing them to do such business, in any of its particulars, by taking out license, giving bond, or filing their alleged salary assignments with the persons to whom they were purported to have been made.

"(10) Your petitioner...