Henderson v. Maddox
Henderson v. Maddox
Opinion of the Court
Estelle A. Henderson instituted suit in the superior court against Cone M. Maddox and J. M. George as marshal of the municipal court of Atlanta, to recover damages for an alleged malicious trespass by the defendants upon the rights of the plaintiff, in causing her to be forcibly dispossessed from premises which she rightfully occupied by reason of the facts that her husband, Fred Henderson, before the date of the dispossession of the plaintiff on May 4, 1933, had obtained from a judge of the superior court an order restraining the defendants from executing the warrant to dispossess, and from interfering with Fred Henderson’s possession of the premises, so long as he should pay $5 a week into the office of the clerk of the superior court; that she as agent for her husband had made payments according to the order of court, including the last payment which was made on April 29, 1933; and that the receipt for the money paid into the office of the clerk of the superior court on April 29, 1933, was on that date exhibited to a deputy marshal of the municipal court at the marshal’s office; and that notwithstanding this the marshal, at the instance and demand of Cone M. Maddox, on the morning of May 4, 1933, went to the residence of the plaintiff and her husband, which was the property from which it was sought to dispossess her, and, in violation of law and the order of the court, threw into the street the household and kitchen furniture belonging to her and her husband jointly, along with other personal belongings of roomers in the house, to the plaintiff’s damage in the alleged sum of $10,000.
It appears from the evidence that Fred Henderson had, as the alleged tenant of the premises, obtained an order restraining the present defendants from executing and putting into effect a warrant to dispossess. It was alleged in Fred Henderson’s petition in that case that the dispossessory warrant, the execution of which he sought to restrain, was issued against him. It appears elsewhere, from the record in that case introduced in evidence, in the final decree rendered therein, which was entered after the plaintiff, Estelle Henderson, had been dispossessed under the warrant, dissolving all restraining orders, etc., that the dispossessory warrant, the execution of which Fred Henderson sought to have restrained, was a dispossessory warrant against Estelle A. Henderson.
It appeared from the evidence that Fred Henderson, in the proceeding to enjoin the execution of the warrant to dispossess, had on
It appears from the evidence that the plaintiff, Estelle A. Henderson, made the weekly payments required by the restraining order in the case of Fred Henderson, and carried the receipts to the office of the municipal court of Atlanta for the purpose of exhibiting them to the marshal of the court, but each time the marshal was not in and she showed the receipts to a person in the office; that
The warrant to dispossess, so long as the $5 a week was paid according to the terms of the order, could not be rightfully or legally enforced against any one in the occupancy of the premises. The plaintiff Estelle A. Henderson was an occupant of the premises. ~ It appears from the evidence that Cone M. Maddox and J. M. George, the marshal, were-defendants in the petition for injunction. They therefore necessarily were chargeable with notice of the contents of the order of court in effect restraining the execution of the dispossessory warrant pending the payment of $5 a week. It also appears from the evidence that J. M. George, the marshal, through his deputies had actual notice that the required payments had been made, and that the payment of April 29, entitled Fred Henderson as well as the plaintiff, Estelle Henderson, to remain in possession of the premises for the following week which extended beyond May 4, the date on which the plaintiff Estelle Henderson was dispossessed. The acts of the deputy marshals of the municipal court in dispossessing Estelle Henderson were necessarily the acts of the marshal himself, and he is chargeable therewith. The act of the marshal in dispossessing Estelle Henderson through his deputies, as it appears from the evidence, constituted a trespass. The court therefore erred, as against J. M. George, marshal of the municipal court, in granting a nonsuit.
It not appearing from the evidence that the other defendant, Cone M. Maddox, although he is chargeable with knowledge of the order of the superior court restraining the dispossession, directed the dispossession of Estelle Henderson, or that he had any knowl
Judgment affirmed in part, and reversed in part.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.