Worley v. Travelers Indemnity Co.
Worley v. Travelers Indemnity Co.
Opinion of the Court
The resulting decision which is the subject
However, it is quite clear from the decisions hereafter cited that the court erred in failing to have a trial de novo in the court below. Doubtless it was felt that the language used by this court authorized him to enter the judgment here on appeal. “If the judgment of the superior court is reversed on every point of exception, or on a single one only, it is entirely vacated; and this is done by placing on the minutes of the superior court, a transcript of the judgment of the Supreme Court. This done, the case stands for trial, de novo, as in the first instance, unless otherwise disposed of, by the order of this court.” Walker v. Dougherty, 14 Ga. 653 (1). In Miller v. Jourdan, 43 Ga. 316, we find the following ruling: “The legal effect of the reversal of the judgment by this court of the judgment of the court below, based upon the verdict of a jury, was to have granted a new trial in the case, and it was error to have adjudged the rights of the parties to this litigation upon the motion.” See also American Associated Companies v. Vaughan, 210 Ga. 141 (2) (78 SE2d 43); Fennell v. Fennell, 210 Ga. 153 (78 SE2d 524). Mayor &c. of Monroe v. Fidelity & Deposit Co., 50 Ga. App. 865 (1, 4) (178 SE 767), came here on exception to the direction of a verdict. After reversal the court entered judgment for the plaintiff in error. This court held: “Although under the ruling of the appellate court as applied to the law and the evidence, the verdict directed for the plaintiff was without evidence to support it and contrary to law, and under the law and the evidence a verdict for the defendant was demanded as a matter of law, the case nevertheless [after reversal] stands on the docket for trial. . . The court erred in disallowing the amendment and in rendering a judgment for the defendant without the intervention of a jury.”
In 1878 Judge Bleckley in Schley v. Schofield & Son, 61 Ga.
It has also been recently followed by this court in Smith v. Smith, 119 Ga. App. 619, 620 (168 SE2d 609): “Where a judgment in favor of one of two parties litigant is reversed by the appellate court without direction, and where only questions of fact, or mixed questions of law and fact are involved, the legal result is a new trial, not the rendition of a judgment without trial and as a matter of course. Schley v. Schofield & Son, 61 Ga. 528. This is true even though it does not appear from the record whether or not the losing party can adduce further evidence with which to meet the deficiency pointed out in the appellate opinion.”
Has the new Appellate Practice Act changed the settled law that a reversal without direction results in a vacation of the judgment and a trial de novo? Code § 6-1804 has been with us since 1850 and was cited in Walker v. Dougherty, 14 Ga. 653, supra, in a holding that such reversal resulted in a new trial. Code Ann. § 81A-156 (Ga. L. 1966, pp. 609, 660; 1967, pp. 226,
Judgment reversed.
Concurring Opinion
concurring specially. But for the decisions cited in the above opinion I would affirm the judgment of the trial court. On the previous appeal, this court held that “the evidence is unqontradicted that the balance between the paid estimated premium and the earned premium was $1,831. . . .” Travelers Indem. Co. v. Worley, 119 Ga. App. 537, 538 (168 SE2d 168). The ruling of the trial judge in entering a judgment for the plaintiff for $1,831 is based not only upon sound principles of judicial administration but common sense. Unfortunately, however, the controlling precedents are based upon the “Doctrine of Contentious Procedure” as espoused in 1878 by Justice Logan E. Bleckley and exposed in 1906 by Roecoe Pound, “The Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction With The Administration of Justice,” 29 A.B.A. Rep. 395-417, and again in 1920 by Judge Arthur Gray Powell, “Practice In the Appellate Courts,” Report, 37th Annual Session of the Georgia Bar Association 142-162.
Reference
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- Worley v. Travelers Indemnity Company
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