Ruffin v. Paris
| Decision Date | 17 November 1885 |
| Citation | 75 Ga. 653 |
| Parties | RUFFIN, executrix, v. PARIS. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
October Term, 1885.
1. Where the judgment of the superior court was adverse to the defendants, one of them could except and bring the case to this court without joining the other plaintiffs in error; and a failure to do so will not work a dismissal of the writ of error.
2. Where a motion for new trial is made, and exception is taken to the ruling thereon, the evidence may be brought up in the record, but it must be referred to in the bill of exceptions. Where there is no reference in the bill of exceptions to the brief of evidence, and a motion is made to dismiss the writ of error, and thereupon a motion is made to amend the bill of exceptions by adding a reference to the brief of evidence the later motion will be sustained and the former overruled.
3. Where an issue of fact was submitted to the jury as follows " Has Whittington (the defendant) put any improvements upon the land, and if so, how much were the improvements worth," and the jury answered, " He has made improvements on thirty acres, worth six dollars per acre," it will not require a new trial that the court did not submit issues requested as to what, if anything, the land would have been worth for rent if Whittington had not cleared it up, and whether the clearing benefited or injured the land. The question submitted and its answer covered the issue which the defendant desired, so far as it was necessary to the making of a proper decree in the case.
4. There was sufficient evidence to support the findings of the jury, to the effect that the husband purchased the land with the wife's money, paid for it with such money, which she gave him to buy the land for her own benefit, and that one who made an advance and took a security deed knew of the facts, and that one hundred dollars had been paid to him.
5. Where the jury found, in answer to one issue submitted to them, that the money was loaned to the husband and wife jointly, and in answer to another issue, found that the note was given by the husband and wife for the husband, there was no necessary conflict between such findings; but giving the verdict a reasonable intendment and interpretation, these findings were that the husband could not have obtained the loan in his own name and on his own credit alone, but had to get his wife to sign with him, which she did for him.
6. The verdict is not so contradictory as not to authorize a decree thereon, nor did the court err in entering upon the verdict a decree that the complainant recover the land and mesne profits, less the value of improvements.
7. The verdict is not contrary to law and evidence, or to the equity of the case.
( a. ) A wife cannot convey her property to secure her husband's debt, nor can she become his security to obtain money or cotton for him; and where a lender took her deed with knowledge that she was conveying her land to secure her husband's debt, she could recover the land from him, and her deed would not estop her from so doing.
( b. ) The verdict and decree allowed the defendant all that the law allows a trespasser buying with knowledge namely, the value of his improvements as a set-off against rents.
Practice in Supreme Court. Practice in Superior Court. Verdict. Husband and Wife. Debtor and Creditor. Estoppel. Notice. Before Judge WILLIS Taylor Superior Court. February Term 1885.
Reported in the decision.
W. S. WALLACE & SON, for plaintiff in error.
1. A motion was made to dismiss this writ of error because all the defendants below are not plaintiffs in error here. They need not be. Either one may bring the case here, and the others rest content with the judgment below. This court has so ruled frequently.
2. The statute provides that, when a cause is brought here on a motion for a new trial, the brief of evidence need not appear in the bill of exceptions, but if filed in the clerk's office, it may come up as part of the record, but must be referred to in the bill of exceptions. No reference here is made to it in the bill of exceptions, and a motion was made to dismiss it. Thereupon the counsel for plaintiff in error moved to amend the bill of exceptions, under the act of 1881; (Code, §4272(b)), from facts in the record, it there appearing that counsel had therein agreed to the brief of evidence, and the court had approved it. By virtue of the ruling in 67th Ga. 364, Kelly vs. McGehee, administratrix, et al., the motion to amend must be allowed, and the motion to dismiss is overruled.
3. In respect to the merits of the case, it appears from the record that the bill was brought by Mrs. Paris against one Whittington (whose executrix was made party defendant on his death) and her husband, to recover a tract of land conveyed by her husband and herself to secure payment of certain indebtedness of such husband, the land being hers, and to recover the land with the rents, issues and profits thereof. The defendant answered this bill, and therein set up title to the land in the husband, and conduct of the wife amounting to an estoppel. The case was tried before a jury on questions propounded by the court, and upon their finding, in answer to those questions, the chancellor made a decree that the complainant recover the premises in dispute and rents for eight years, amounting to $480.00 less $180.00, for improvements by Whittington thereon. A motion for a new trial was denied the executrix of Whittington; she excepted, and this denial of her motion on the grounds therein specified, is the error assigned here.
In view of the questions propounded to the jury by the court and the answers thereto, we do not see how the defendant was hurt by the refusal of the court to put before them those requested by her counsel. Those additional issues requested are, what if anything, would this land have been worth for rent if Whittington had not cleared it up, and did the clearing benefit or injure the land? It seems very clear that the...
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