124 Ga. 863 | Ga. | 1906
S. S. Lee sued out a writ of attachment against Pilcher & Company, non-residents, returnable to a justice’s court, on the 4th day of April, 1904, and caused the same to be levied upon certain flour as the property of the defendant. The levy did not state that the flour was found in the possession of the defendant. The American National Bank filed a claim to the property. By consent the case was appealed to a jury. TJpon the trial the plaintiff introduced evidence, which, in so far as the rulings' brought here for review are concerned, may be treated as sufficient to prove, the debt and the ground for attachment. Upon the question of title- to the property the evidence offered by the plaintiff was substantially to the effect that T. J. Beeves, of Thomaston, Georgia, had 'ordered 12 barrels of flour from the defendant, Pilcher & Compaq, to be shipped from Nashville, Tennessee, to Thomaston, Georgia. The flour was shipped March 26, and a bill of lading' issued to the order of Pilcher & Company, with directions to notify Beeves. The Hour was shipped upon the bill of lading with the draft for the purchase-money attached, and was levied on while in the hands of the common carrier at Thomaston, Georgia, before Beeves had accepted the same or paid for it. Beeves testified that at the time of the levy the flour was not his property, but that according to his understanding it was the property of Pilcher & Company, the defendant in attachment. The plaintiff rested; whereupon the claimant moved the court to dismiss the levy on the ground that the plaintiff had failed to prove either possession or title in the defendant. The motion was overruled- The claimant then introduced .the bill of lading, dated March 26, 1904, indorsed in blank by Pilcher & Company; and likewise a draft by Pilcher & Company on T. J. Beeves in favor of the claimant, the American National Bank, for the purchase-money of the flour. Claimant also introduced the testimony, by interrogatories, of Pilcher and Le-Sueur, the cashier of the bank, to the effect that on March 30, 1904, the bill of lading, with draft on Beeves for the' purchase-money attached, was sold and' transferred, by indorsement by Pilcher & Company, to the bank, intending thereby to sell the flour and the right to collect for its own account the draft. The bank paid
Judgment reversed.