133 Ga. 451 | Ga. | 1909
It will be unnecessary to consider any question except that which relates to the conclusiveness of the judgment in the justice’s court. If it was conclusive, that would end the case; if not, the court on another trial will try the case on the other questions involved, and all proper evidence will probably be admitted. What has been stated as to a future trial of the case may be qualified, however, by what is stated in the second division of the opinion. It is provided in the Civil Code, §4819, that “The partydistrained may in all cases replevy the property so distrained, by making oath that the sum, or some part thereof, distrained for is not due; . . and in such ease the levying officer shall return the same to the court having cognizance thereof, which shall be tried by a jury as is provided for in the trial of claims.” In this case Lou Bonds undertook to resist a distress warrant sued out against her for the amount in dispute, by filing an affidavit reciting, among other things, “that the sum distrained for is not due, nor is she indebted to plaintiff in any sum whatever for rent. The defendant (Lou Bonds) further says that the said Mrs. C. G. Brown, who claims this rent to be due her, only holds a deed from her (Lou Bonds) the intention of which was made to secure a debt and not to prove title, and that she (Lou Bonds) has never yielded posses
2. It was urged that the judge ought not to have directed a verdict. If the case should go to another trial, it is probable that this question may again arise; and in addition to what has been said in the foregoing division of the opinion we deem it proper to refer to the right of the judge to direct a verdict. The evidence relied on to show the reasonable value of the rent of the land was mere opinion evidence, and such questions are always to be determined by the jury, and a verdict ought not to be directed where such evidence is involved. See, in this connection, Jennings v. Stripling, 127 Ga. 778 (56 S. E. 1026), and cases cited.
Judgment reversed.