15 Ga. App. 663 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1915
The Atlanta Finance Company brought suit against the Southern Railway Company upon a contract whereby one Clark purported to have assigned on June 30, 1913, an account for salary or wages already earned by him during the month of June, and due to him by the Southern Railway Company.’ The defendant relied upon the invalidity of the contract of assignment, as its defense, and in its plea asserted that the real contract was in fact an assignment on April 23, 1913, of wages which at that time had not been earned. It was further alleged by the defendant that the wages sought to be assigned were paid by it to Clark after the company was made aware that the assignment was in fact executed on April 23, 1913, and not on June 30, 1913, as it purported to have been. A motion to strike the defendant’s plea was overruled. On the trial it appeared, without contradiction, that Clark merely signed the printed form of assignment of wages; all the spaces prepared for insertion of the date, the amount, the name of his employer, and the period for which the wages were due, as well as the consideration of the contract, being left blank. This paper was signed by him on April 23, 1913, and he executed at the same time another paper, containing the following clause: “In consideration of notes and money had and received, I hereby give
The various exceptions in the record really present but two questions; the determination of which controls alike the ruling upon the motion to strike the defendant’s answer, the correctness of the rulings upon the evidence, and the merit of the judgment finally rendered. (1) Is the contract which was the basis of this action void, as being in violation of section 3465 of the Civil Code? (2) Is the right to assert that a contract is void a mere personal privilege, conferred upon the maker of the assignment, and the asser
1. We see no reason why the invalidity of such a contract may not be asserted by any one whose interests are affected by its provisions. Suppose that, from familiarity with the handwriting of Clark, the defendant in the present ease had perceived, when the assignment 'was presented, that what purported to be the signature of Clark was in fact a forgery, or suppose that the contract had borne the date of April 23, 1913, instead of June 30, 1913, would the defendant have been compelled to pay the order for wages, and be precluded from setting up any of the facts stated as defense? Certain it is that one who owes an account to another will not be discharged from liability to his creditor by making payment in pursuance of an assignment which he knows to be a forgery, and that under such circumstances he would not be protected against having to pay the account to the real creditor. It is undisputed in the present case that the Southern Railway Company knew that this assignment was only signed in blank on April 23, 1913, and knew that Rosenbusch subsequently filled in all the material stipulations of the contract. Having notice of all these facts, demand for payment, by the assignee imposed upon the debtor the responsibility to pay at its peril. If, under such circumstances, the contract was a valid assignment the debtor should pay. If the de
2. We come then to consider whether the undisputed facts show that the contract was one involving unearned wages, or whether it related to wages whose very existence depended upon the developments of the future. In arriving at the intention of the parties the two papers which were contemporaneously executed are to be construed together, and we think that the authority conferred in the power of attorney to execute “a salary order on any time that I may have at any time” clearly shows that at the time the assignment was made the parties to the contract were dealing with wages to be earned, instead of wages which had already been earned. It is true that Clark did nothing more than sign the contract of assignment, and that he authorized the Atlanta Finance Company, whenever he had wages' due him, to draw an assignment or salary order, as it is called. But the purpose of the law would be wholly defeated if such a power of attorney as this could be construed to .authorize a creditor to determine, at his pleasure when he should make demand upon a debtor of his debtor, the amount for which demand should be made, and to select the particular debtor of his debtor whose indebtedness he would transfer to himself; and so it is plain that none of the authorities cited as to contracts not in contravention of public policy (all of which contracts, so far as appears, were perfectly legal) are in point. The signing of a blank assignment of wages, in which the date, the amount, 'and all other