110 Ga. 346 | Ga. | 1900
The Macon and Birmingham Railway Company presented a petition to the superior court' of Bibb county, praying for the writ of certiorari. It appears that Artope, agent, brought suit in a justice’s court against McLaughlin, to recover on an account. Attached to the summons was a bill of particu
Another ground of alleged illegality to the judgment rendered against McLaughlin is, that the pleadings show that the suit was founded on an indebtedness to one Vannucci, and' there was nothing upon which to base or render a judgment in favor of Artope against McLaughlin. If McLaughlin had interposed an objection to the rendition of this judgment, it would have been good under the pleadings as they then stood. They were, however, subject to amendment. The summons set out that McLaughlin was indebted to Artope, agent. There is nothing in the summons, nor in the bill of particulars attached, which showed for whom he was purporting to act as agent, nor any words which indicated an agency. The rule is well established, that the word agent affixed to the name is not sufficient to change the character of the suit from being an individual proceeding; the word standing alone is superfluous and means nothing. So treating the summons, it appears to be an individual suit of Artope against McLaughlin. The bill of particulars attached apparently sets out an indebtedness by McLaughlin to Vannucci. This, of course, was irregular, but certainly not enough to make the judgment rendered void. The irregularity could be cured by amendment; but as no complaint was made by McLaughlin before judgment, he could not thereafter be heard against it because of this irregularity. An irregularity in the pleadings does not make the judgment void. Stanford & Golden v. Bradford, 45 Ga. 97; 2 Freeman on Judgments, § 487. If the judgment was- good against McLaughlin, it was certainly sufficient to establish his indebtedness to the plaintiff, and that was all that was necessary to serve as a basis for the garnishment proceedings. As in our opinion the proceedings against McLaughlin, taken altogether, while irregular, were not such as to render the judgment void, it must follow that the judgment rendered against the garnishee should have been allowed to stand under the allegations made in the petition, and
Judgment reversed.