Rust v. Producers Co-Operative Exchange, Inc.
Rust v. Producers Co-Operative Exchange, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
(After stating the foregoing facts.) The affidavit in garnishment is sworn to by R. M. Reed as agent for Producers Co-operative Exchange Incorporated. The bond signature contains the typewritten words, “Producers Co-Operative Exchange, Inc. (Seal), Principal, By____________________________________; Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company (Seal) by R. B.
The motion for a new trial was on the general groúnds only. It is contended, however, that a new trial should have been granted because the plaintiff in execution, who traversed the answer of the garnishee, failed to comply with the' garnishment statute. The original judgment against the defendant Williams was obtained in Greene County. The plaintiff thereafter went before a justice of the peace of Cobb County, pursuant to the provisions outlined in Code § 46-604, and caused the latter to issue a summons returnable to the Cobb County Superior Court. Code § 46-604 provides in part: “and it shall be the duty of the officer serving such summons to return or transmit the certified affidavit and bond, together, with his actings and doings thereon, to the superior or justice’s court of the county in which such suit shall be pending or judgment shall have been obtained.” There is no evidence in the record that this was done. Counsel for the garnishee rely upon Columbus Iron Works Co. v. Pou, 98 Ga. 516 (25 S. E. 571), in their contention
It is further contended that, since the affidavit in the garnishment proceedings shows it is based upon a judgment rendered in 1940, such a judgment, being dormant, could not be the basis of a valid judgment, and also that, since the judgment was not introduced in evidence,. the plaintiff did not carry the burden of proving that he had a valid, unsatisfied judgment. Proof that a judgment is more than seven years old is not conclusive of its dormancy. Code § 110-1001 provides the manner in which judgments may be kept alive. Section 110-1002 et seq. provide the manner of reviving them after they, have become dormant. It is the right and duty of the garnishee, after the rendition of a verdict finding him indebted, to inquire into the validity of the judgment on which, the garnishment is based. Ingram v. Jackson Mercantile Co., 2 Ga. App. 218 (2) (58 S. E. 372); Merchants &c. Bank v. Haiman, 80 Ga. 624 (5 S. E. 795). He may raise the point that the garnishment proceedings are based on a dormant judgment and, upon proof thereof, the plaintiff is not entitled to judgment. The purpose of his so doing is to protect himself from twice paying the debt, should it turn out that the plaintiff was not in fact entitled to recover from the original defendant. But in the present case the defendant ad
The ultimate question is whether there was evidence to warrant the jury in finding that the transfer of payments by the garnishee from H. E. Williams Sr. to his son, H. E. Williams Jr., beginning as of April 28, 1948, the day the garnishment summons was served, was a cover-up transaction for purposes of evasion. Before the service of the summons, according to the testimony of the bookkeeper for Rust Cheese Company, checks to H. E. Williams Sr. were made out simply, “H. E. Williams.” One of these checks, dated April 22, was in evidence. Notice to produce checks issued subsequently was given, but the checks were not produced. The bookkeeper testi
Under this evidence the.jury was authorized to find that H. E. Williams Sr. actually made no change in his employment; that Rust Cheese Company made no change on its books, and that the transaction was a mere cover-up to evade the garnishment proceedings. This case differs from Rainey v. Eatonton Co-Op Creamery, 69 Ga. App. 547 (26 S. E. 2d, 297), cited by counsel for the garnishee, in that there the husband was the defendant in execution, and the evidence showed that over a considerable period of time, both before and after service of the summons of garnishment, checks had been regularly made payable, not to him, but to his wife, the court holding that the jury was authorized to find that the funds so dispersed were a part of her separate estate.
The trial court did not err in overruling the motions in arrest of judgment and for a new trial.
Judgment affirmed.
070rehearing
On Motion Eor Rehearing
Counsel for the garnishee insists that the court erroneously construed certain decisions of this court and of the Supreme Court in holding in effect that where a garnishment is sued out
“Sections 4715 and 4716 of the Civil Code each prescribe methods by which assets in the hands of a prospective garnishee who resides in a different county from the debtor may be reached. One of the purposes of the provisions of each section, as pointed out by Chief Justice Bleckley in West v. Harvey, 81 Ga. 712 (8 S. E. 450) is ‘to show a connection between the garnishment and the proceedings elsewhere in the main case.’ See Civil Code, §§ 4549, 4550, 4715, 4716, 4717. The plaintiff in the present case proceeded under the provisions of § 4716. The garnishing judgment creditor did all that it was required by law to do. It made the required affidavit and bond. It then became the duty of the magistrate to make out the certified copy and deliver it to the constable, and the duty of the constable to transmit it to the justice’s court of DeKalb County, where the judgment was originally rendered. If the garnishing ' creditor should be held responsible in any case for the dereliction of officers charged with the performance of a duty, we do not think such a rule should be applied under the facts of this case; for the reason that before judgment was entered against the garnishees the certified copy was filed in the court which rendered the main judgment, and thus the connection between the proceedings in garnishment and ‘the main case’ was evidenced. The law does not fix a time within which the certified affidavit and bond shall be transmitted; and so far as the rights of any
It will be noted that nowhere in the foregoing quoted portion of Judge Russell’s opinion in Atlanta & West Point Railroad Co. v. Farmers’ Exchange, supra, is it held upon whom is the burden of showing the transmission of the garnishment proceedings. However, in Central of Georgia Railway Co. v. Dickerson, 15 Ga. App. 293 (1) (82 S. E. 942), a subsequent decision written by Judge Russell, it is held as follows: "Under the provisions of section 5278 of the Civil Code [§ 46-604 of the Code of 1933] it was the duty of the officer issuing the summons of garnishment to make two copies of the proceeding and to return a certified copy of the proceedings to the justice’s court in Chattooga -County. It must be presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that the magistrate performed his duty. Nonperformance of this duty is not a matter which concerns the garnishee except so far as it may affect the garnishee’s interests, and it must be specially pleaded.”
At page 296 Judge Russell, speaking for the court, said: “The great bulk of the briefs in this case, the numerous citations of authority, and the earnestness with which the case is argued in the briefs, as well as the well-deserved reputation of the eminent counsel who represent the plaintiff in error, for profound learning, not only in the law but in literature as well, unconsciously impressed us so seriously that we were at first inclined to believe that perhaps the learned trial judge had committed a grave error and had outraged some of the most sacred principles of the law and perverted our Civil Code, to the injury of civil justice, and we suspected that, though the amount involved was small, the case was of serious moment on account of the principles involved, and because of the probable far-reaching consequences of our decision; and we were prepared to proceed to the utmost limit of laborious research in an en
The decision of this court on this question is in substance that, since there was no evidence in the record as to whether the garnishment proceedings were transmitted to the court wherein the original judgment was rendered in accordance with a part of the provisions of Code § 46-604, and since the question was not there raised, it must be presumed, in the absence of a showing in the record to the contrary, that the duty was performed. The burden therefore is on the garnishee to make this showing. This principle is based on Central of Georgia Rail-, way Co. v. Dickerson, supra, a decision rendered by the Court of Appeals and written by Judge Russell, for whose decisions this court entertains the highest regard.
The remaining question raised in the motion for rehearing is without merit.
Rehearing denied.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- RUST Et Al v. PRODUCERS CO-OPERATIVE EXCHANGE, INC. (Two Cases)
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published