60 Ga. App. 357 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1939
(After stating the foregoing facts.)
Where the court directs a verdict on specific pleas, and the record so shows, the verdict, though worded as a general verdict, is not a general, undirected verdict, but is to be regarded as a verdict actually directed by the court, and a party who does not object to the form of the verdict is not precluded from excepting to the direction of a verdict. What is here held is not contrary to the principle that where a general verdict is rendered by a jury, where a special verdict is invoked, or where the jury should have specified upon which of several pleas the verdict was rendered, the failure to object to the form of the verdict is a'waiver of the right to a special verdict. The reason for this principle is that unless the objection is made, and the jury required to specify upon which plea the verdict is rendered, it may reasonably be presumed that the jury rendered a general verdict upon all the pleas. Where a verdict is directed on particular pleas, the court and the parties know upon which pleas the verdict is rendered. In such a case the jury does not render a verdict from its own deliberations and there is no speculation as to its findings. So far as the contention by the defendant in error that the verdict is a general verdict, is concerned, there is no merit in the motion to dismiss the writ of error.
Where both parties move for a directed verdict and agree that the case is one for a directed verdict on specified pleas, for one side or the other, disputed issues of fact, if any, are impliedly
A direct exception lies to the direction of a verdict, and an assignment of error that the direction of a verdict was error because a contrary verdict was demanded by the evidence is a good assignment of error. Mullis v. McCook, 185 Ga. 171 (194 S. E. 171). The motion to dismiss the writ of error for lack of an assignment of error is denied.
In view of the motion by each side for a directed verdict, and the consent of the parties that a verdict be directed for one side or the other, the only question for determination under the assignments of error in the bill of exceptions is whether the verdict was demanded for the plaintiff on the issue raised by the defendant’s three pleas, those of election of remedies, waiver, and ratification. If there were authorized findings of fact, or authorized inferences from undisputed facts, they can not be inquired into, nor can the question as to whether the issues should have been submitted to a jury. We are of the opinion that the evidence on the question of waiver and ratification did not demand a verdict for the plaintiff. In this view there is no necessity to consider the other questions involved.
It is extremely doubtful whether the plaintiff in error would be entitled to a reversal if her contentions were correct for the reason that the evidence included in the bill of exceptions does not show that her husband was guilty of the forgeries and unauthorized acts charged in her petition, and it therefore does not appear that a verdict was not demanded generally for the defendant. If it was, the direction on a particular plea would not be harmful. As
The fact of Mrs. Groover’s refusal to sign the release was communicated to Groover’s attorney but not to him, and his attorney did not see him after such notice to him. Mrs. Groover’s refusal- to sign the release and the execution of the deed by Groover to his wife occurred the same day. There was a dispute in the testimony as-to whether the deed was to be a settlement between the parties and operate as a final release of all claims of Mrs. Groover against her husband. He and one witness swore it was a final settlement and complete release. Mr, Lawrence and other • witnesses testified to the, contrary.
Subsequently to the time when the deed was received from the husband, conveying to her the money in several banks, the- insurance businesses and other propert3, Mrs. Groover paid out, on the debts of the insurance businesses, large sums approximating the amount received by her under the deed. This-was-done, so far as the record shows, without the knowledge of- the defendant bank.
On July 38, 1933, Mrs. Groover’s father, Captain C. K. Lawrence, pledged with Liberty Bank & Trust Company 100 shares of coca-cola common stock to secure the amount of all indebtedness of Eobert N. Groover. The bank loaned him various sums on this security. On January 7, 1936, his indebtedness was $19,000, and on that day he paid on it the sum of $10,000 by check on Citizens & Southern National Bank. Captain Lawrence paid the -balance of this indebtedness. Mr. Groover borrowed an additional'$9000 from¡ Citizens & Southern National Bank on January 7, 1936, and paid Liberty Bank & Trust Company $10,000. Mrs. Groover’s alleged stock was hypothecated with Citizens & Southern National Bank to secure the notes of 'Eobert N. Groover for $57,500 and rediscounted notes of Groover and Huger in the sum of $8709.39 and $316 accrued interest on all the said amounts. Citizens & Southern National Bank sold out the stock, which sold for $69,454, leaving a balance of $3928.56 which was placed to Groover’s-credit. The bank retained enough money to secure -the rediscounts, and
Mr. M. H. Barnes, a certified public accountant, began an audit of Groover’s insurance business and completed it for Mrs. Groover. He testified that the audit showed a profit of $6496.45 for 1936, 1937, and through September, 1938; that Groover paid W. M. Coney $10,000 for the Coney & Company business; that they owed Morris Plan Company $1664, and owed Liberty National Bank & Trust Company $9000; and that in 1935 Groover received $11,-357.91 in commissions. On January 15, 1936, Mrs. Groover entered into an agreement with Harris Rankin Company'under which it was to operate the insurance businesses for her on a 50-50 basis, for twelve and one-half years, at which time the corporation was to own the businesses outright. On the date of the contract the ’ businesses had $12,593.58 of accounts receivable, of which approximately $8490 were collected. After expenses were deducted, these accounts netted in cash $3210.84. The other bills receivable were turned over to Mrs. Groover’s attorneys, certain of which had family and friendship involved in them, for which reason collections were not forced. A witness testified that the sales price of an insurance agency was two and one-half tim.es the annual commissions. The annual commissions on the Groover business for 1936 were $2436. A witness testified that the business would normally grow less every year; that the computation of the value of an insurance business was based on the commissions of the year immediately preceding the sale. Groover paid $3600 for the Wheaton Agency, and $10,000 for the Coney & Company agency. A witness testified the agencies were not worth anything like $27,000. Groover paid Huger $5699.27 for his interest in the partnership of Groover & Huger, an insurance agency, and Groover assumed all the obligations. The records of the following proceedings were introduced in evidence, containing substantially what they were alleged to contain in the defendant’s pleadings: the petition for a receiver, the order appointing the receiver, the order of court turning over to Mrs. Groover the assets in the hands of the receiver, the receiver’s final report, Mrs. Groover’s final receipt to the re
Mrs. Groover’s cause of action is based on the alleged forgery of her name to the note for $30,000 at the defendant bank, to various checks, and the forgery of her name to the letter to the bank stating that she was giving the coca-cola stock to her husband and requesting that it have the stock transferred to him. The petition alleged that Mrs. Groover gave her authority for the stock to be hypothecated for a loan of $8000 for her husband to use in buying out the interest of Huger in the partnership of Groover & Huger. The defendant bank contends that by reason of the acts of Mrs. Groover she waived the alleged forgeries of her husband and ratified them, thereby releasing both her husband and the bank. The first question to be answered, then, is, can a forgery be ratified in so far as civil rights are concerned? The evidence does not show whether Mr. Groover attempted to imitate the handwriting of his wife, or whether he signed her name in his ordinary handwriting without her authority. Although we think that under the law it would be immaterial in which way it happened, if there is a difference, and if the former act would not be subject to ratification and the latter would, the presumption would be in favor of the directed verdict, in the absence of evidence as to what occurred. The wrong in forgery, in the last analysis, is the lack of authority, for, whether the alleged forger signs in his own handwriting or imitates that of another, his act is not a forgery if he has authority to sign the other person’s name. A forger is assuming to act for another, and in his, the latter’s name, and what could have been done by previously granted authority may be' corrected and made perfect by subsequent ratification, as to civil rights. With the criminal aspects of this question, we are not here concerned. We might qualify what we have said as not referring to a case where one imitated the writing of another and impersonated the other as a part of the scheme to defraud. In such a case he would be acting wholly for himself, and the gist of the wrong would not be the false assumption of authority. It should be stated further
The other act of forgery relied on by Mrs. Groover is the letter. Knowing that much of the proceeds of the loan from Citizens .& Southern National Bank went into the insurance business, Mrs. Groover accepted the deed to the business and accepted the balance of the money derived from the sale of her stock by Citizens & Southern National Bank. Thus a finding that she ratified the forged letter was authorized. $10,000 of the money borrowed from Citizens & Southern National Bank was virtually paid to her father, as it was used as a credit on one of Mr. Groover’s notes which was secured by collateral loaned him by her father. Pur
The ratification of Groover’s acts would fully release Groover from liability for his wrongful acts'. It would be in full satisfaction as to him, and would release the joint tort-feasor. Donaldson v. Carmichael, 102 Ga. 40 (29 S. E. 135); Griffin Hosiery Mills v. United Hosiery Mills, 31 Ga. App. 450 (120 S. E. 789); Edmundson v. Hancock, 40 Ga. App. 587, 591 (151 S. E. 114).
Both sides having moved for a directed verdict, and having-agreed that a verdict should be directed for one side or the other,
■Judgment affirmed on the mam bill of exceptions. Cross-bill dismissed.