179 Ga. 179 | Ga. | 1934
Ransom brought his petition praying for injunction against the City Council of Augusta and O. B. Palmer, sheriff thereof. The petitioner alleged that he had purchased certain property in the City of Augusta with funds which had been paid to
The court erred in disallowing what is called an amendment to the defendants’ answer. This, while termed an amendment to the answer, does not allege any facts additional to those in the answer, but sets up numerous reasons why the exemption claimed by the petitioner can not be sustained, and is in fact a general demurrer to the petition. The court should not have overruled it, but should have sustained it on the legal grounds taken therein. The judge no doubt based his judgment on the cases of Rucker v. Merck, 172 Ga. 793 (159 S. E. 501), and City of Atlanta, v. Stokes, 175 Ga. 201 (165 S. E. 270). We have been requested to overrule those decisions; but it is not necessary to do so, as they were not unanimous opinions' by a full bench. There was a dissenting opinion in each of them; and they are without authority in view of the decision in Trotter v. Tennessee, 290 U. S. 354 (54 Sup. Ct. 138, 78 L. ed. 128). The conclusion in regard to the exemption claim announced in the Federal case is directly opposed to the rulings in the cases of Merck and Stokes, cited above. It is proper to say that the decision by the Federal Supreme Court had not been rendered at the time the trial court in the present case made the ruling which is reversed by this decision.
Judgment reversed.