Bone v. Graves
Bone v. Graves
Opinion of the Court
It appears, from the record in this case, that suit was instituted against James W. Bone, upon a promissory note, made the 10th January, 1860, to the May Term of Randolph Superior Court, 1867. At the November Term thereafter, defendant pleaded losses by the war and tender of the money
We do not think the Court erred in refusing the motion for a continuance. The certificate of the presiding Judge, which presents the truth of this case as a part of the record, shows that the announcement in relation to the trial of cases did not apply to the-case before the Court, but only to such cases as were affected by the Act of 13th October, 1870; and a debt contracted for land and suit instituted thereon, while defendant was in possession, did not fall within the provisions of the Act. We are indisposed to favor the continuance of cases in the Court upon alleged misapprehensions, arising out of general announcements, touching the disposition of the business in Courts. Parties who have cases should attend to them, and not trust to impressions of what the Court may or may not do in general cases. And, while we do not doubt the good faith of the parties, it did not constitute a good ground for a continuance; nor, under the facts in this
Upon the trial of the issue, the evidence submitted to the jury showed that this note was given for the purchase-money, and the question arises, under the law, whether the Court erred in its charge to the jury, under the facts in this case. Under the Relief Act of 1870, section 15, it is expressly provided that nothing in the foregoing section of the bill should be construed to extend the relief contemplated therein to any defendant, who was in possession of the property purchased at the time of the commencement of the suit. And the equities arising from losses created by the war, under the Relief Act of 1868, have been adjudicated by this Court to embrace only such losses as were occasioned in some manner by the act of the plaintiff. And, inasmuch as a tender in 1863 is not alleged to have been in the lawful money of the United States, and may be properly regarded as a tender of Confederate money, it was not within the rule of this Court, in 40th Georgia, 501, as, in that case, the money borrowed was Confederate money, and the equities growing out of a tender of the same currency was not, within the contemplation of the law, capable of assimilation.
In the view which we entertain of the Relief Act of 1868, we do not consider the Legislature constitutionally competent to create an equity, but only to provide a remedy for an equity existing between the parties at the time of the trial, and which, this Court held must be attributable, if it consisted in losses during the war, to some act of the plaintiff which tended to such a consequence.
Again, in the case at bar, upon the issue found by the jury, applicable to cases where the defendant was in the possession of lands at the commencement of the suit instituted upon the contract, entered into for the purchase-money, we
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- James W. Bone, in error v. H. L. Graves, in error
- Status
- Published