181 Ga. 630 | Ga. | 1936
On October 30, 1934, H. Oscar Johnson brought suit against Georgia Power Company, claiming damages in the sum of $10,000 for injuries received by him on September 7, 1934, while in the employment of Harbison-Walker Mining Company, said injuries being alleged to have resulted from the negligence of Georgia Power Company. On February 21, Í935, a verdict was rendered in favor of Johnson against Georgia Power Company in the sum of $1800. A motion for new trial, made by Georgia Power Company, was dismissed on April 13, 1935, and on the same day that company presented its bill of interpleader. The presiding judge entered thereon an order directing that it
Johnson, Walker, and Barwick filed their response, admitting the allegations of facts as stated above, but setting up the defense that no reason existed for the bill of interpleader, because of the contract entered into between Harbison-Walker Mining Company and Georgia Power Company for the installation of said electrical equipment by Georgia Power Company on property of HarbisonWalker Mining Company, by which it was alleged Harbison-Walker
Harbison-Walker Mining Company filed its answer admitting the substantial allegations of the bill of interpleader, but demanding proof of the contract between Johnson and Walker and Bar-wick and its terms, and of the written contract between Georgia Power Company and Harbison-Walker Mining Company. It alleged that it accepted the provisions of the workmen’s compensation law and became a self-insurer thereunder; that on September 7, 193-1, Johnson, its employee, sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the scope of his employment; that HarbisonWalker Mining Company and Johnson entered into a memorandum of agreement as to payment of compensation as authorized by the compensation law, providing for1 the payment of $7.70 each week during disability as a result of said accident; that pursuant to said agreement Harbison-Walker Mining Company had paid and Johnson had accepted compensation from September 11, 1931, through April 1, 1935, amounting to $223; that immediately following said accident Harbison-Walker Mining Company furnished Johnson medical attention as provided by the compensation law, which was accepted by him, at a cost of $129, pursuant to section 26 of that law; that under section 2(d) of workmen’s compensation act (Ga. L. 1922, p. 189; Code, § 111-103) Harbison-Walker
An order was entered requiring the claimants of the fund to interplead, dissolving the restraining order- of April 13, 1935, and providing for the payment by Georgia Power Company of said judgment to Walker and Barwick as the transferees of Johnson, upon their giving bond conditioned to protect the parties ultimately held to be entitled to the fund. To this judgment the plaintiffs in error excepted. The assignments of error in the bill of exceptions are as follows: "1. That no reason exists for said inter-pleader, because the payment of said verdict'to H. Oscar Johnson or his transferees at the time of the filing of the bill of inter-pleader would have subjected Georgia Power Company to no danger. 2. That said verdict, judgment, and execution had been transferred by H. Oscar Johnson, and the, payment thereof to his transferees would have completely discharged Georgia Power Company. 3. That under the contract between Georgia Power Company and Harbison-Walker Mining Company the latter could never have subjected the former to liability, but on the contrary Georgia Power Company could have indemnified 'itself against HarbisonWalker Mining Company.”
The only question before this court for. decision is whether or not Georgia Power Company had the right to require interpleader. The only way the respective claims of Johnson and HarbisonWalker Mining Company are involved is merely for the purpose of deciding whether or not the same contain such apparent right to the fund as to cause doubt on part of Georgia Power Company of which claim it should recognize in payment of said verdict and judgment. The Code of 1933, § 37-1503, provides conditions com
Georgia Power Company in its interpleader set up, among other things, the subrogation and indemnity provisions of the workmen’s compensation law, and averred that Harbison-Walker Mining Company, pursuant to the terms of that law,’ had claimed a larger •amount payable to it out of the verdict and judgment than Johnson, Walker, and Barwick were willing to concede as properly payable to Harbison-Walker Mining Company;, that Georgia Power Company was in doubt as to whom and in what amounts it should pay said verdict and judgment; and that it would be dangerous for Georgia Power Company to decide between said conflicting claims. Johnson, Barwick, and Walker in their response admitted these allegations. The bill of interpleader was sanctioned contemporaneously with the dismissal of the''motion for new trial. In Perkins v. Trippe, 40 Ga. 226, it was held: “Where there is a bill of interpleader, and the defendants--answer, admitting on
In Western & Atlantic Railroad Co. v. Union Investment Co., 128 Ga. 74 (57 S. E. 100), one Maner was due certain wages by the railroad company and had executed certain instruments purporting to assign certain sums to be paid therefrom. The assignees notified the railroad company of their respective claims, and various other creditors were pursuing the fund by garnishment. The
On the trial of interpleader each of the claimants occupies the position of plaintiff, and must recover on the strength of his own title rather than on the weakness of tlie other’s title. In Conway v. Caswell, 121 Ga. 254, 259 (48 S. E. 956, 2 Ann. Cas. 269), it was stated: “In interpleaders both claimants are in a position similar to that of plaintiffs in other posesssory actions, where the recovery must be on the strength of their own title rather than on the weakness of their adversary’s title. Civil Code, § 5004.” In Edmondson v. Farmers & Merchants Bank, 29 Ga. App. 491 (115 S. E. 924), the court held: “A purchaser of personal property encumbered with a lien is protected only when he purchases bona fide, for value, without notice of the lien or of such facts as would put him on notice of the existence of the lien.” When a similar question was presented in Crain v. Carter, 158 Ga. 428 (123 S. E. 699), this court said: “He who takes with notice of an equity takes subject to that equity.” In view of the foregoing authorities, and the fact that Johnson, Walker, and Barwick knew of the claim of subrogation of Harbison-Walker Mining Company, and were actually refusing to recognize it, the subrogation right was not defeated merely by a transfer of the judgment to the parties having full knowledge and notice of such claim.
The plaintiffs in error apparently rely mainly on the recent decision of the Court of Appeals in Travelers Insurance Co. v. Georgia Power Co., 51 Ga. App. 579 (181 S. E. 111). That decision dealt with the liability of a defendant in execution, after the payment of the execution, to respond to a claim' asserted by the employer on the theory of subrogation. The execution was ■paid in full and canceled before any effort was made by the employer to assert a subrogated right against the Georgia Power Company. In the present case the Georgia Power Company, confronted with probable garnishments and other litigation, attempted to have adjudicated the outstanding claims against it in a single action, for the purpose of protecting itself against such liability and avoiding a complicated legal situation. The decision rendered in Travelers Insurance Co. v. Georgia Power Co., while distin
Judgment affirmed.