Stinespring v. Fields
| Decision Date | 16 September 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 52489,No. 2,52489,2 |
| Citation | 139 Ga.App. 715,229 S.E.2d 495 |
| Parties | J. F. STINESPRING, Jr., et al. v. Geneva FIELDS |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
L. Eddie Benton, Jr., Commerce, Cathey & Strain, Dennis T. Cathey, Cornelia, for appellants.
James L. Brooks, Gregory M. Perry, Commerce, for appellee.
Defendants below, Stinespring and Hall Finance Company, Inc., d/b/a Security Finance Company (hereinafter Hall Finance) bring this direct appeal from a jury verdict and judgment in favor of Mrs. Fields awarding her $10,000 damages as the result of a malicious prosecution.
Stinespring was agent (employee) and manager of the branch of Hall Finance at Commerce, Georgia. His principal duties were the granting of personal loans and the collection thereof. Mrs. Fields obtained a loan of about $100 from Hall Finance in March, 1974. She gave as security several items of household furnishings. By September, 1974, Mrs. fields was in default on the note. After several unsuccessful attempts to collect the past due payments or to reach some accommodation with Mrs. Fields, Hall Finance sent one of its employees from the Commerce office to Mrs. Fields' home on December 31, 1974. This employee, after briefly discussing the indebtedness, became verbally abusive and offensive, using profane language. He was ejected from the home. On that same date Mrs. Fields swore out a criminal warrant against the employee.
Later during the afternoon of December 31, 1974, the employee was arrested at the Commerce office of Hall Finance and incarcerated in the Jackson County jail. Stinespring arranged for bail for the release of his employee. Stinespring on that same afternoon or during the early evening (New Year's Eve) went to the Fields' home to 'inventory mortgaged property.' Though the evidence is contested (and resolved by the jury against the defendants) Stinespring concluded that certain of the mortgaged personalty was not in the home. He, therefore, on that evening swore out a criminal warrant for Mrs. Fields for illegal disposition of mortgaged property. Mrs. Fields was arrested and confined in the county jail for some 12 hours over New Year's Eve. At a preliminary hearing on January 7, 1975, at which Stinespring and Hall Finance were represented by counsel, as was Mrs. Fields, the prosecution was dismissed for insufficient evidence. This action for malicious prosecution followed.
Stinespring and Hall Finance enumerate as error: (1) the failure of the trial court to direct a verdict in favor of Hall Finance at the close of evidence; (2) errors by the court in giving or failing to give certain charges; and (3) error by the court in admitting or refusing to admit certain testimony. Held:
1. In the first enumeration, appellants urge error in the refusal to direct a verdict in favor of Hall Finance at the close of the evidence. This error is predicated on the alleged lack of proof showing either that Stinespring acted within his authority in swearing out the criminal warrant against Mrs. Fields or that Hall Finance ratified that action. Hall Finance introduced evidence that it first became aware of the warrant on January 10, 1975, three days after the suit was dismissed. The area manager reprimanded Stinespring for his action and warned that a repetition would result in an automatic dismissal. Hall Finance maintained that these actions by the area manager amount to a repudiation of Stinespring's acts. There was other evidence, however, that when the area manager observed a charge to Hall Finance for the cost of the warrant, the cost was not refused or made the personal obligation of Stinespring. Furthermore, an attorney at the preliminary hearing at which the warrant against Mrs. Fields was dismissed was retained in behalf of Stinespring. This cost also was accepted by Hall Finance and not made the personal expense of Stinespring. Stinespring was not fired and in fact later was made manager of an office having a greater number of active accounts than the one at Commerce.
Stinespring testified he was charged by Hall Finance with the responsibility of making loans and thereafter collecting the same. He acknowledged there was an established procedure for swearing out a warrant which he did not follow. However, he further testified that the only reason he obtained the warrant was to coerce an early collection of the past due indebtedness. He testified he did not think it would ever come to an arrest and confinement of Mrs. Fields.
Even if we assume that Stinespring exceeded the scope of his authority in swearing out the warrant, Hall Finance still is faced with ratification of Stinespring's acts. Where the principal ratifies the tort of the agent after its commission, the liability of the principal is the same as if he had commanded it, provided the ratification is had with full knowledge on the part of the principal of the manner in which the tort was committed. Turner v. Joiner, 77 Ga.App. 603(4b), 618, 48 S.E.2d 907; Wren etc. Homes v. Midland-Guardian Co., 117 Ga.App. 22, 25, 159 S.E.2d 734. This issue was presented to the jury under comprehensive and correct instructions and resolved against the defendants. Considering all the evidence, which must be construed most favorably toward the plaintiff, we conclude there was a factual issue to be passed upon by the jury. We cannot conclude that there was no evidence of any kind supporting the plaintiff's position on ratification. Accordingly the trial court did not err in denying a directed verdict for the defendants at the close of the evidence. Montgomery v. Pacific & Southern Co., 131 Ga.App. 712, 714, 206 S.E.2d 631; Johnson v. Mann, 132 Ga.App. 169, 207 S.E.2d 663.
2. In their second enumeration, appellants complain that the trial court erred in not telling the jury why it removed from its consideration the counterclaim of Hall Finance in which Hall Finance sought to recover the indebtedness owed it by Mrs. Fields. In point of fact, Mrs. Fields confessed judgment...
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