130 Ga. 191 | Ga. | 1908
Lead Opinion
The Chattahoochee Lumber Company sued the Commercial Union Assurance Company Limited, of London, on a fire-insurance policy. In addition to this policy there was another issued by the Home Insurance Company of New York, covering the same property, on which suit was likewise brought. The suit against the Home Insurance Company was first tried. It was agreed in writing in open court that the present case should “abide the result” of the other, and that, “whatever may be the final result in the termination of the latter suit, the same result is, agreed to be the final termination of the suit against the Commercial Union Assurance Company.” Judgment was recovered against the Home Insurance Company for the full amount of its policy,, crediting the defendant with a premium which had been returned to the plaintiff; the case was brought to the Supreme Court, and the judgment affirmed (126 Ga. 334 (55 S. E. 11), and this was; “the final termination” of that suit. When the case against the.
But it is said that if the agreement operated to conclude the defense as to the amount of the loss sued for, it was made under a mistake, and should have been opened so as to admit .proof that the loss was not total as to all the property covered by the policy, but that some of the items were not destroyed. In Jarrett v. McLaughlin, supra, it was said that “There was no merit in the motion to set aside the agreement of the parties, inasmuch as the plaintiff in error voluntarily chose to consent that his case should abide the result of that brought to trial and final judgment, whatever that result might be or however erroneously or through whatever misfortune it might be reached; and therefore he stands in no better position than does the losing party to that case, as to whom the judgment therein is certainly final.” That case was properly decided on its facts, and states the general rule. Mere errors, or failure to make all possible defenses or introduce all possible evidence on the trial of one case, would furnish no reason for allowing them to be urged on the trial of the other. But we do not wish to be understood as laying down an inflexible and invariable rule that all agreements between counsel for the advancement of the trial of a case, such as that certain facts may be treated as true without proof, stand exactly like contracts of bargain and sale, or that they can never be opened for fraud or mistake, upon proper application, notice and showing. In 1 Greenleaf on Evidence (16th ed.), §206, it is said: “It is only necessary here to add, that where judicial admissions have been made improvidently, and by mistake, the court will, in its discretion, relieve the party from the consequences of his error, by ordering a
In Johnson v. Wright, 19 Ga. 512, it was declared to be a general rule that agreements made by parties in the progress of a case, which had been acted on by either party, can not be repudiated by the other;. at least not unless, on setting aside the agreements, things resume their position in statu quo. See Morris v. Milner, 20 Ga. 563 ; Varner v. Goldsby, 22 Ga. 302. In Wallace v. Matthews, 39 Ga. 617 (99 Am. D. 473), it was held that where a
In Union Bank v. Geary, 5 Peters, 99 (8 U. S. (L. ed.) 60), in an action on a promissory note, the attorney for the plaintiff agreed with the defendant, whose intestate was an indorser on the note, that if .such defendant .would not dispute the liability but
From the foregoing discussion it will be seen that if admissions have been improvidently made in the progress of a suit, upon due notice the court may allow them to be withdrawn, if no injury would happen to the adverse party from having relied or acted on them. In such a case due regard should be had to the rights of the adverse party, and that he be not misled and allowed to act to his injury in reliance on the admissions of his adversary, and then have them withdrawal. An agreement that one suit shall abide the result of another, where one is tried and the plaintiff allows the other action to stand without urging it to judgment promptly, in reliance upon the stipulation, is more formal, and can be less easily set aside. Perhaps few strongly contested cases are tried in which some point does not suggest itself to the mind of the losing party or his counsel in which he might strengthen his ease, if he -had -another opportunity. But considerations of this kind would- not require the opening or setting' aside of an agreement to abide the final result of the ease tried. It would seem that, in
Here the agreement in writing was made on May 11, 1905, in open court, before the case of the Home Insurance Company was tried. The verdict in that case was against the defendant for the full amount of the policy, less a small credit on account of a premium. The judgment was brought to the Supreme Court, and affirmed. The plaintiff did not then press its case on the other policy to trial and judgment, but allowed it to stand for disposition under the terms of the agreement. The trial of the present case came on more than a year later, on November 12, 1906. Both parties announced ready, and the jury was impaneled. The bill of exceptions states that the “defendant then in open court tendered to the plaintiff in money the amount of principal and interest conceded to be due in its amended answer filed November 12, 1906, which tender was by the plaintiff refused.” The motion to be allowed to open or go behind the agreement was filed on the same day; whether before or after the trial began does not appear. As stated before, the policy issued by the Home Insurance -Company and that issued by the present defendant were identical in form, and contained the same items of property and the same clause in regard to • proration. The same agent represented both companies at Bainbridge, Decatur county, the county in which' the property insured was located. The schedule of prop
Both sides asked for the direction of a verdiet. Neither side -asked to go to the jury. Lydia Pinkham Medicine Co. v. Gibbs, 108 Ga. 138 (33 S. E. 945).
Judgment affirmed.
Rehearing
ON MOTION TO REHEAR.
A motion for a rehearing has been made in this ease.
After a careful examination, the motion is denied. We have not misapprehended the case. We are merely constrained to differ with the counsel for the movant in their view of the law. We 'think the principles announced in the opinion heretofore prepared -control the case; but as counsel have urged with great earnestness ■that, under all the facts, there should be a different result, we will -discuss the facts somewhat further. The written agreement which ■was made by counsel for both parties in this case in open court -contained the following material part: “It was agreed in open -court by the counsel for the plaintiff and defendant in the above ¡suit that the same abide the result of a similar suit in favor of the Chattahoochee Lumber Company vs. Home Insurance Company ; and whatever may be the final result in the termination of the lat'ter suit, the same result is agreed to be the final termination of the ¡suit vs. the Commercial Union Assurance Company.” This is plain, ■clear, and unambiguous in its terms. Each suit was for the full .amount of the policy. The first case was then tried, and the other was allowed to stand to await the final result thereof. That result •was a verdict on May 11, 1905, for the full amount of the policy (less a small amount of premium which had been returned in an ineffectual effort to cancel). The ease was brought to the Supreme ‘Court, and the judgment was affirmed on August 17, 1906. The .second case came on for trial on November 12, 1906. The only way in which the final result of the first case could be made the final result of the second was to enter a similar verdict and judg:ment. A verdict for one half or. two thirds, or any other frac
Here, then, was an application to the court touching the agreement. But the allegations were not evidence. We think it would be too narrow and technical a view to say that this was a motion merely to construe the agreement. If that were all, we have stated above what we considered to be the inevitable construction of the ■agreement as it stands; and no written motion, with allegations touching mistake of fact on the part of counsel in entering into it, would have been necessary to merely construe a written agreement. While the words “reopen” or “reopen in part” were not used in the motion, but those before quoted, we think the motion should be treated as substantially one, not merely for construction, but also to allow the agreement to be reopened to the extent indicated. The following excerpts from the brief of counsel for plaintiff in ■error set forth certain positions taken therein touching this agreement: “The agreement entered into in open court between attorneys for plaintiff and attorneys for defendant in the court below, that this cause should abide the result of a similar suit in favor ■of the Chattahoochee Lumber Company v. .Home Insurance Company as,set forth in the bill of exceptions, binds the defendant below, plaintiff in error here, only as to the one issue upon which the ■case of Chattahoochee Lumber Company was tried in the. court below. . . Even though attorneys for plaintiff in .the court below knew that the loss was not total, and. intended that the agree'ment should bind as to the relative proportion of recovery, attor
To grant a motion of the character of this one is not a matter of .absolute or arbitrary right on the part of the movant, but is an appeal to the power of the court in the administration of justice, and. must be determined by the court under the facts. It is said in •Greenleaf on Evidence (vol. 1, p. 206) that a clear ease of mistake •entitling the party to relief must be shown, or he will be held to an admission made in furtherance of a trial. An agreement that one suit should abide the result of another would certainly be as strong, if not stronger, than a mere stipulation waiving certain proof or making an admission; and the party seeking relief must make a .clear case entitling him thereto. Any other rule would make agreements of this character of small effect. lias the plaintiff in error brought itself within this rule, and shown that the presiding judge erred in his ruling on the matter?
Evidence was introduced to show that counsel for the defendant thought the loss total, and did not know otherwise until one of them learned of it about six weeks, the other about two months and a half, before the trial. The attorney for the plaintiff who drew the original petition in the case stated that, when he drew it, he ihousht the loss was total. On the trial of the former case, the
If the motion made by the defendant should be granted, it must rest upon the contention that, under the circumstances, it would be unjust to allow a verdict to be taken for the amount of the entire policy, when some of the items were not destroyed. It will be observed that this assumes as unquestionable that the pro rata clause in the policy refers to distributing the loss among the items; while' counsel for the defendant in error do not concede the position, but in their brief urge, that, where there are more policies than one,, words of proration should be construed as referring to prorating among the policies, if the loss be less than the amount of both; and that it was not less in this instance. If the contention now made by the plaintiff in error as .to the extent of the liability under the' policy is correct, it was just as true of the first policy as it is of the' second, and would have been just as good as a defense on the first trial as on the second. We need not decide whether the construction of the policy which the plaintiff in error contends for, or that insisted on by the defendant in error, is correct, further than to say that the position of the defendant in error is not wholly without sup
Broadly it might be said that no recovery should be had which is not authorized by the facts. But a sweeping application of such a doctrine would destroy the efficacy of agreements of the character of that under review. It would be useless to agree that one case should abide the result of another, if such an agreement meant that it should not do so, in whole or in part, unless the facts authorized the result, and that the contrary might be shown in the second case. There are many cases in which an agreement works a real or apparent hardship, but parties are held bound. Courts will not always reform errors in instruments, if they exist. Laches, negligence, may be such as to prevent relief. Estoppels are based on the position that under certain circumstances the law will not allow a party to show even the actual facts. This is said merely by way of illustration of the statement that any general idea that a verdict should not be permitted where not warranted by the facts is subject to modification by reason of the acts of parties themselves. It may be said that it would be unjust to allow a recovery on the policy in full, when, without controversy, some of the items were not burned. Suppose that counsel for the defendant, instead of learning that some items were not burned, had learned that benzine was kept on the premises, or of any other defense (except perhaps cancellation) which would have' avoided the policies and have defeated a recovery at all, would the ease have been different ? If the company could have shown that it was not liable at all, it would have been even harder to allow a verdict against it' than if it was claimed to be liable only for a part of the sum named in the policy. It is no answer to this to say that no such defense was set up, and that liability was conceded as to the items burned. If this defense
Is this defendant (not merely its lawyers) in a position which clearly shows 'that it was entitled to the relief'asked of the court? Mr. Graves, the local agent doing business in the county where the fire occurred, issued both policies, and knew what was in them. If such policies insured the property by items, and not for $5,00'0 and $20,000 on the whole property, he must have known it. He was notified of the fire, alleged to have consumed more than $40,000 worth of propertjq and asked to send an adjuster to inspect the loss. He doubtless saw the proofs of loss; certainly the company did so. These proofs were not made out for loss on certain items of the policy, but set out all the property claimed to have been destroyed in one list or schedule, thus apparently claiming loss on the policy as a whole. A careful inspection of them would have shown, that, under the statement that “The following is a complete schedule of the property lost by fire, showing the cash value of each item, and the amount of loss claimed thereon,” only two buildings were claimed to have been destroyed, while the policy showed that four were insured, thus on the face of the proofs showing that some of
There was no allegation or proof that the agreement was induced by fraud. The declaration did allege a total loss, but one hardly accepts his adversary’s allegations as a basis of agreement, without more; and the answer which the defendant filed indicated an unwill
A reference was made in the opinion, previously prepared, to the fact that this was not a regular proceeding in equity, hut a motion. We did not hold that a proceeding in the nature of a bill in equity was the exclusive remedy; but a proceeding in equity to obtain relief against a mistake (as in a deed or other instrument) and a motion like the one here discussed involve some difference in practice. An ordinary suit to obtain equitable relief looks ultimately to a jury trial (if the case withstands a demurrer and a motion to dismiss in the nature of a nonsuit, which may be made). A motion of the kind here made is addressed to the judge presiding, in the exercise of his coercive power in the advancement of justice, — - not to the jury. In strict practice, the motion should have been made to the presiding judge, and his ruling invoked oh it distinctly, under the facts presented; and if he sustained it, and allowed the defense to be made, the case should then have proceeded to the jury'; or if he refused to allow the defense to be set up, he .should have then directed a verdict under the agreement. As this was not done, but the whole matter was dealt with together, and after the evidence closed the judge directed a verdict, this was substantially a ruling against the motion.
In the opinion' previously prepared, in stating the contention of the amended plea this language was used: “Therefore it is claimed that it was not liable for the full amount of its policy, but only for a pro rata amount determined by the ratio of the value of the items which were destroyed to the value of the whole property insured.” The word “value” as here used referred to the value stated
After a careful examination of the entire case, we can not say that the judge erred.