Windsor v. Cruise

• Court: Georgia Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Bleckley, Chief Justice
• Citation: Windsor v. Cruise, 79 Ga. 635 (Ga. 1887)
• Decision Date: 31 October 1887
• Parties: Windsor. vs. Cruise.

79 Ga. 635

Windsor. vs. Cruise.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

OCTOBER TERM, 1887.

Verdict. Evidence. Sales. Title. Trover. Before Judge Hutchins. Gwinnett Superior Court. September Adjourned Term, 1886.

Reported in the decision.

C. H. Brand, for plaintiff in error.

F. F. Juhan, for defendants.

Bleckley, Chief Justice.

In justice's court, the action was trover by the lender of an ox against a purchaser from the borrower. Three verdicts in favor of the defendant have been successivelyset aside by the superior court on certiorari, the one now under review being the third. The evidence on the question of title, put in the best light for the verdict, was that when the loan was made, this ox was priced to the borrower at $15, with a continuing offer of sale at that price, if the borrower should decide to purchase; that the borrower did decide to purchase, but gave no notice of his election; that he sold the ox to the defendant before the period of loan had expired, and that the plaintiff got information of this sale, but did not then or previously withdraw the offer of sale which he had made at the time of the lending.

1. There seems to have been a great struggle over this ox; and no doubt our decision was predestinated from the foundation of the world to be a painful one, no matter which way we might make it; and the court must be excused for feeling regret that it has to decide the case either way; but the case has to be decided, and our conclusion is, that the jury, or the juries (for there were three of them), having passed upon it, ought to be yielded to; because there are two constructions to be put upon the facts, one of which will uphold the verdict, and the other not; and after such a protracted litigation, it seems to us that the construction of the evidence most favorable to...