88 Ga. 199 | Ga. | 1891
Judgment affirmed.
Tbe declaration of Mrs. Phillips, formerly Mrs. Winn., alleged: On February 3, 1881, Z. T. Gray executed to her a bond for $1,200, tbe condition of which was as follows: She bad conveyed to him a bouse and lot in Atlanta, tbe furniture contained therein, and an Atlanta city bond for $500, as an indemnity against loss upon a
Gray pleaded not indebted; that he had fully complied with the obligations of the bond sued upon ; that on May 18, 1881, the firm of J. W. Phillips & Company compounded with their creditors, with the exception of the Dibble Hardware Company to whom they owed about $1,200; that in consideration of this settlement the superior court of Pulton county ordered the receiver of Phillips & Company to pay over to Phillips all the assets in his hands belonging to the firm, except an amount retained to cover the claim of the Dibble Hardware Company; that immediately upon the settlement by Phillips & Company and the partial release of this defendant upon the bond mentioned in the declaration, J. A. Gray, who held and had entire charge of the deed from plaintiff to defendant, the bill of sale of the furniture and the city bond, as attorney for plaintiff and agent for defendant, delivered the bond and bill of sale as defendant was obligated to do ; that Phillips and plaintiff' desiring an entire release of the bond, so that the prop
The jury found for plaintiff $800 principal. Nefendant’s motion for new trial was overruled, and he excepted. In addition to the grounds of the motion that the verdict was contrary to law, evidence, etc., it was alleged therein that the court erred in refusing to charge : “ If you find from the evidence that James A. Gray was the attorney of plaintiff-in inducing defendant to sign her bond as surety, and to obtain his signature to the bond told him he was authorized by his client to pledge certain securities, among them the bond now in question, and that if he would sign the bond these securities would be left with him, James A. Gray, to he kept by him for defendant’s security, and if acting upon these assurances defendant signed the bond, and the securities were so left with said James A. Gray and were afterwards by him in any way converted, the defendant would not be liable for the conversion unless he knew of the conversion and aided therein, or it was done by his consent or knowledge.” It was alleged that the court gave no charge at all as to the mutual relation which J. A. Gray sustained to the parties, but treated him in his charge, so far as
Also, that the court erred in excluding the following evidence of defendant: In the spring or summer of 1881, I met J. A. Gray and asked him about the way the ease was progressing between Mrs. Winn and the creditors of Phillips, and he told me that it was all settled but one claim of about twelve hundred dollars, and that he had surrendered all the securities except the deed to the land, as this would secure me in what was behind.
The evidence showed: J. W. Phillips & Company, being indebted to plaintiff, made her a mortgage and bill of sale, which were drawn, by a law firm of which J. A. Gray was a member. Afterwards the creditors of Phillips & Company filed a bill attacking the sale, and a receiver was appointed; to release the goods from the possession of the receiver plaintiff got J. A. Gray, who represented her and Phillips & Company in the litigation, to get up a bond, and in pursuance of this authority J. A. Gray got his father, the defendant, to sign such a bond as surety. Plaintiff authorized J. A. Gray to say to the person who would sign the bond that she would convey her house and lot, her furniture and the city bond, and let J. A. Gray have supervision over the store, and J. A. Gray so informed his father and told his father he would see that his father was protected, as the business would be in his (J. A’s) hands, and that he was authorized by plaintiff to say so, and that his father would he in no danger. On these terms defendant agreed to go .on the bond and did so, and the deed to the realty, bill of sale to the furniture and the city bond were turned-over to J. A.- Gray. The defendant. never had possession of either the deed, hill of sale, or city bond. The business of Phillips & Company was, until the 18th of May thereafter, conducted by one Mead, J. A. Gray advising that J. W. Phillips have nothing to do with it until he