68 Ga. 449 | Ga. | 1882
The trial of the claim is to be conducted, in case a claim is interposed, just as a claim is tried in case of levy of executions by the sheriffs, and claim of property interposed there. The issue is made up, and the question is subject or not subject to be sold by the administrator; and the moment the fact appears that the property is in the possession of an adverse holder, and was so when advertised for sale, that issue must be determined in the negative — not subject, — because the statute says he shall not sell such property until he has recovered the possession. Code, §3743 et seq. These sections show how the trial is to be had, and the issue to be made as in claims of property levied on by executions.
So that the question is one of fact — were the claimants in possession at the time the land was advertised for sale ?
Of that there is no doubt, from the facts in this record. Was that possession adverse ? Of that there is as little doubt. They held under a deed, in their own right, under claim of right, and, therefore, adversely to all the world, the estate included, and not as heirs at law of the descendant, but donees — not by descent, but by purchase.
Doubtless, it was this view of the law of this case which induced the court below to exclude the evidence of insolvency of the estate and the fraudulent nature of the conveyance to the claimants, coupled with the other equally strong view that it did not lie in the mouth of the administrator to attack the deed of his intestate, but that he was estopped as completely as the intestate donor would have been. 19 Ga., 290; 22 Ib., 432.
Moreover, it was this view, doubtless, which also induced the judge to say, when he overruled the motion for a new trial, that “ the verdict under the evidence and the law, as given in charge, could not have been otherwise, and, therefore, the motion for a new trial is refused.”
Agreeing with the presiding judge in this view, the evidence and the law of the case compelling the verdict, the judgment is affirmed.