Jones v. State
Jones v. State
Opinion of the Court
An information was filed before the judge of the superior court of the Stone Mountain Circuit, charging N. T. Jones with contempt of court. A rule nisi was issued requiring said Jones to appear before the bar of DeKalb superior court and show
Omitting formal parts, the information, by paragraph, follows: “1. That on June, 1927, there was presented to his honor John B. Hutcheson, judge of the superior courts of the Stone Mountain circuit, by L. L. Ray, an attorney at law, a petition and prayer in the case of Carter Electric Company v. Mrs. Ella Dee Jones, said cause then pending in DeKalb superior court, one of the courts of said circuit. ' 2. A copy of said petition is hereto attached and marked Exhibit A. 3. That the language of said petition and prayer has a tendency to impede, embarrass, and obstruct said court in the due consideration of justice therein, and contains false and defamatory reflections upon the judicial integrity of said court. i. That N. T. Jones, a resident of Eulton county, Ga., a son of defendant in said cause, actively counseled, advised, and urged the preparation of said petition, was present at the preparation of said petition and said prayer, was conversant with its contents, carried it to his mother for her signature, and accompanied L. L. Ray to Jonesboro, where said petition was presented to your honor.”
The objectionable petition, attached as Exhibit A to the information, alleged: 1. The pending for fourteen months of “certain litigation in which your petitioner is defendant and Carter Electric Company et al. plaintiffs, same being a. bill for receiver for certain property,” which was described. “2. That various and sundry petitions and bills, both at common law and at equity, have been presented to the Hon. John B. Hutcheson, judge of the Stone Mountain Circuit for the State of Georgia; that upon these bills and petitions various orders have been entered and passed by the said Hon. John B. Hutcheson, touching the questions made in the litigation between the parties herein referred to. 3. That, without exception, the said Hon. John B. Hutcheson, when any petition has been presented to him by your petitioner, has accepted the same for consideration, and, before passing an order upon the same, would, by some means unknown to your petitioner, but she supposes by phone, communicate with counsel for the Carter Electric Company and confer with them and others secretly, and with
The prayers of the petition are: (1) that the sheriff and others be restrained from interfering with the petitioner’s possession of the property described in the petition; (2) “that your honor will
The demurrer to the information follows: “1. Said rule and information set forth no cause of action or complaint for contempt against this respondent. 2. Said rule and information do not set up facts showing that the contempt alleged took place in the presence of the court or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice. 3. The facts in said ease set forth in the rule and attachment do not show that respondent has been guilty of any contempt, or conduct for which the law justifies fine and imprisonment. 4. Because the information and rule show that N. T. Jones is neither an officer of the court nor a party to a suit, nor a juror, witness, or that he has disobeyed any writ, process, rule, or order of court.”
An examination of the petition attached to the information as Exhibit A, and especially of paragraphs 3, 5, 6, and 7, and of the prayers thereof, clearly shows the contemptuous nature of the petition. In this connection, see the Fite case, 11 Ga. App. 665 (76 S. E. 397), and citations.
Accepting as true, as we must on demurrer, the allegations of fact in the information, we are sure that paragraph 4 of the information fixes upon N. T. Jones full responsibility for everything contained in the petition which is the basis of the contempt proceeding.
The second ground of the demurrer is in the language of the Civil Code (1910), § 4643 (Civil Code of 1895, § 4046). In Bradley v. State, 111 Ga. 168 (1, 2) (36 S. E. 630, 50 L. E. A. 691, 78 Am. St. R. 157), where this code, section was directly up for construction, it was said: “1. The power to punish contempts is inherent in every court of record. If the court is created by the
We have already reached the conclusion that the information set out facts constituting a contempt of court, and the punishment inflicted is within the rule that superior courts have the right “to punish contempt by fines not exceeding two hundred dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding twenty days.” Civil Code (1910), § 4849 (5). The third ground of the demurrer is without merit.
Ground 4 of the demurrer is in effect that the information is defective because it shows that Jones did not belong to any class made subject to contempt under section 4643 of the Civil Code of 1910. This contention is denied by the ruling in Bradley v. State, supra, and by numerous other decisions of this court and of the Supreme Court.
No ground of the demurrer was good, and the court’s judgment overruling it was correct.
N. T. Jones was found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to pay a fine of $200, or to serve twenty days in jail. Does the evidence support the judgment? In his answer to the rule Jones admitted paragraphs 1 and 2 of the information, and denied paragraph 3. Paragraph 3 of the answer was as follows: “Answering paragraph 3 of the petition, says that he admits that he is the son of the defendant, Mrs. Ella Dee Jones, that he was conversant with
N. T. Jones testified in effect that he protested against the objectionable features of the petition, but finally, upon the assurances of counsel that the petition was unobjectionable and proper, consented that it be presented to the judge as it was. It is inferable from the testimony of L. L. Ray, who had already been found in contempt of court for the part taken by him as an attorney in preparing and presenting the petition to the court, that N. T. Jones was largely responsible for the objectionable features of that petition, and that they were incorporated in the petition under Jones’s directions, and over his, Ray’s, protest. There is evidence in the record sustaining Mr. Jones’s version of the matter, and there is also evidence tending to sustain Mr. Ray’s version of it. It was also in evidence that Mr. N. T. Jones had frequently acted as his mother’s agent in handling her legal affairs; and it appears from the record in this case that Mr. Jones assisted in the conduct of the ease by examining witnesses at length.
In the light of the foregoing, and of the fifty-page brief of evidence, which we have carefully read, we are constrained to hold that, the judge did not abuse his discretion in adjudging the plaintiff in error in contempt of court.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.