8 Ga. App. 101 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1910
We think that the court properly dismissed the motion for a new trial in this case. Counsel for the plaintiff in error relies upon the decision of this court in the ease of James v.
By the consent of the movant’s counsel the decision of the court
Without considering the first and last grounds, it is sufficient to say that either the second or the third ground was sufficient to 'authorize the dismissal of the motion for a new trial. The movant was required, by the terms of the order granting an extension of time, to present his brief of evidence for approval- on or before August 9, 1909, and he had not done so; but even if, by any construction, it could be held that the terms of the order tended to grant an extension (such as was expressly given in the Flannery case) until the hearing, the movant did not then have any brief of evidence, and was 'asking for time in which to prepare one. None of the facts stated upon the motion for a continuance afforded any just excuse for the movant’s failure to prepare a brief of evidence. Three weeks passed before the judge who tried the case died. There was nearly a month thereafter before the mov
It is apparent to. us, as it must have been to the judge in the. court below, that the attorneys for the movant depended entirely upon the stenographer to prepare the brief of evidence. We therefore think it not inappropriate to make a few remarks upon the subject of counsel’s duty with relation to the brief of evidence. In the progress of our modern civilization the stenographer has become an almost indispensable adjunct in the administration of justice; but 'as related to counsel, the fact that the stenographer fails to do his duty, or is unavoidably prevented from doing it, is only of such value, when offered as the excuse or reason why