160 Ga. 303 | Ga. | 1925
The petitioners in this case voluntarily dismissed their suits in the superior court. During the same term of court they filed a motion to reinstate the cases. This motion was denied, and no exception was taken to that judgment. It is alleged in the present petition that the judgment was proper under the law. “When a plaintiff, by his counsel, voluntarily dismisses his petition, whether for a good or bad reason, the court has no authority, over objection by the defendant, to reinstate the action.” Simpson v. Brock, 114 Ga. 294 (40 S. E. 266); Petty v. Piedmont Fertilizer Co., 146 Ga. 149 (90 S. E. 966). The ground upon which reinstatement was sought was that the party in control and who gave direction that the suits be voluntarily dismissed had informed counsel that a material and necessary witness absent when the case was called had not been subpoenaed, whereas the witness had been subpoenaed to attend at a previous term of the court; the person in control of the litigation and who gave that information to counsel in the case had made an honest mistake as to the law as to the effect of a dismissal of the suit, and an honest mistake of the law requiring the attendance of witnesses at all terms of the court subsequent to the service of the subpoena, and thus ignorantly misled counsel, who understood her to mean that the witness had not received any subpoena whatsoever in the case. The question, therefore, is whether equity will relieve a party who has voluntarily
Judgment affirmed.