113 Ga. 320 | Ga. | 1901
The Ludden & Bates Southern Music House brought against D. P. Hill an action for the recovery of a piano and for the hire thereof, and obtained a verdict. He filed a motion for a new trial, presenting for determination the questions dealt with in. the headnotes; and his motion having been overruled, he excepted. The plaintiff relied upon a written contract evidencing a sale by it of the piano in controversy to one Lane, with a reservation of title in itself. This contract was attested by a subscribing witness who was not an official. It was not probated for record or recorded. The defendant claimed under a purchase from Lane, and set up that he bought in ignorance of the existence or terms of such contract. There was some evidence to support his contention that he bought.without notice, and much and very strong evidence to the contrary.
. The rulings in that case, viewed in the light of the issues which called them forth, seem to settle authoritatively the proposition that the law embraced in section 2776 of the Civil Code should not be held to mean that a reservation of title in a written contract of sale is totally void.as against third parties unless the same be so attested that it is immediately entitled to record. Attestation is certainly indispensable. See Harp v. Guano Co., 99 Ga. 752. But the conclusion that official attestation is not absolutely requisite is, in our judgment, not only consistent with justice but, upon a proper view of the statutory provisions bearing on the subject, well founded. Construing the words, “ shall be executed and attested in the same manner as mortgages on personal property,” occurring in section 2776, in pari materia with the words, “must be executed in the presence of, and attested by, or proved before, a notary public or 'justice of any court of this State, or a clerk of
Judgment affirmed.