Mcgehee v. Powell
| Decision Date | 31 January 1858 |
| Citation | 24 Ga. 530 |
| Parties | Harrison & McGehee, plaintiff in error. vs. J. S. PowELL, defendant in error. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Covenant, in Muscogee Superior Court. Tried before Judge Worrill, at November Term, 1858.
This was an action of covenant brought by Joseph T. Powell, against Harrison & McGehee, to recover damages for the breach of the covenant of warranty of soundness of a negro sold by defendants to plaintiff.
The facts of the case are fully stated in the opinion of the Court.
The jury found for the plaintiff $460.27.
Defendants moved for a new trial upon the following
grounds:
1st. Because the Court erred in withdrawing from the jury, upon application of plaintiff's counsel, the charge, that they might, if the evidence authorized it, find for the plaintiff the consideration money with interest; in other words, in allowing the plaintiff to abandon a rescission of the contract.
2d. Because the verdict was contrary to law.
3d. Because the verdict was contrary to the evidence.
4th. Because the verdict was wholly unauthorized by the evidence.
The Court refused the motion for a new trial and defendants excepted.
HoLT & HuTchins, for plaintiffs in error.
Wellborn, Johnson & Sloan, contra.
By the Court. —Lumpkin, J., delivering the opinion.
Powell bought of Harrison & McGehee, in Oct., 1855, three negro men, for which he paid $3,100, taking a warranty of soundness. One of the three was Frank, the subject of this suit, valued in the trade at $1,100, and worth that, no doubt, if sound. Powell, the purchaser, being satisfied that the boy was unsound, offered to rescind the contract, and return the negro sometime during the year 1856. The defendants declined taking him back, and this action is brought to recover damages for a breach of the warranty of soundness. There were some fourteen or fifteen witnesses examined altogether, one portion, including the examining physician, proving that the negro was so badly diseased, and chronically so at that, as to render him valueless. The rest, and among them Dr. Billing, testifying that the disease was gleet, which could have been cured for ten or fifteen dollars. He admits, however, that if the symptoms as seen upon the examination of Dr. Butt, were true, the disease must have been chronic.
Upon the whole, after a careful examination of the testimony, we may say, that the weight of it, is not strongly and decidedly against the verdict. Indeed, taking the number of witnesses examined and the better opportunity enjoyed and more thorough examination made by the witnesses on the part of Powell, we incline to the opinion, that the strength of the proof is on his side.
Had the Court the right to withdraw a charge in...
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Werk v. Big Bunker Hill Mining Corp.
... ... find, in frequent instances, compromise verdicts. 'Summum ... jus is rarely administered.' Harrison v. Powell, ... 24 Ga. 530, 532. Here, under the erroneous charge of the ... court, was an opportunity to compromise. Who with certainty ... can say that ... ...
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Beasley v. Beasley
...and the basis of that text seems to be predicated upon decisions widely scattered, which seem fully to support it, as follows: In Harrison v. Powell, 24 Ga. 530, where there was conflicting and contradictory evidence as to the value or worth of a slave by reason of his unsoundness, and the ......
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Adams v. Ginn
...by the evidence; and even if, as is contended, it was a compromise verdict, this alone is not cause for setting it aside. Harrison & McGhee v. Powell, 24 Ga. 530(2); Godwin v. Fertilizer Co., 99 Ga. 181, 25 S.E. 181. "That a witness, after the trial, made certain declarations at variance wi......