173 Ga. 250 | Ga. | 1931
The facts in this case down to the last trial in Wilkes superior court are set out in the report of this case when it was previously before this court. Peoples Bank v. Johnson, 171 Ga. 274 (155 S. E. 204). At this subsequent trial the plaintiffs offered an amendment, the substance of which was that no answer was ever actually filed in Oglethorpe superior court by the Buffalo Lumber Company to the summons of garnishment served on them; that the attorney for the lumber company prepared an answer, but did not have it sworn to or filed, but instead mailed it to the clerk of the superior court of Wilkes county; that the judgment rendered in Oglethorpe comity, finding the amounts in the hands of the garnishee due defendant, was rendered without evidence of a judgment against the defendant in Wilkes superior court; that the said judgment of Oglethorpe superior court does not speak the truth, in that the lumber company was never at any time indebted to the defendant; that said judgment was allowed through fraud, accident, or mistake of the lumber company. This amendment was allowed subject to demurrer; and the court sustained a demurrer thereto, except as to the allegation of the amendment that no answer Avas ever actually filed in Oglethorpe superior court, though the attorneys for the garnishee mailed a copy of an ansAver to the counsel for the Peoples Bank.
On the trial the plaintiffs 'introduced certified copies of the dissolution bond, and of the judgment of Oglethorpe superior court against the principal and sureties in the dissolution bond. Also, interrogatories of B. D. Patton, clerk of Oglethorpe superior court, as folloAvs: “Upon examination of the records and files in my office I have not been able to find any answer of the Buffalo Lumber Company or of the Bank of Lexington in the garnishment case of Peoples Bank v. B. H. Johnson, Buffalo Lumber Company and Bank of Lexington, garnishees, which resulted in the judgment finding the sum of $1625.49 subject to garnishment, which' was rendered March 15, 1926.” Also testimony of Clement E. Sutton, counsel for plaintiff in the case of Peoples Bank v. B. H. Johnson, as to the rendition of the judgment in Oglethorpe superior court, finding the amounts in the hands of the garnishees belonging to the
On motion a nonsuit was granted, and the restraining order theretofore granted dissolved. In the bill of exceptions the plaintiff assigns error on the sustaining of defendant’s demurrer to the amendment to plaintiff’s petition, on the exclusion of the evidence as set out, and on the grant of a nonsuit, contending that the evidence offered by the plaintiff was sufficient to raise the question of fact, to be determined by a jury, whether or not the judgments sought to be set aside were fraudulent, void, and did not speak the truth.
To a petition filed in the superior court of Wilkes county to set aside certain judgments of the superior court of Oglethorpe county by two sureties on a bond to dissolve certain garnishments, as appears from the former report of this ease (Peoples Bank v. Johnson, supra), the plaintiffs filed the amendment set forth in the statement of facts. The defendant demurred to the amendment as seeking to set aside a proceeding within the jurisdiction of Oglethorpe superior court, thus seeking to go behind that judgment and inquire whether or not Buffalo Lumber Co. was indebted to E. PL Johnson, the principal in the garnishment bond upon which plaintiffs were securities. The court sustained this demurrer except in so far as the amendment alleged that no answer was ever actually filed in Oglethorpe superior court, though the attorneys for the garnishee mailed a copy of an answer to the counsel for the Peoples Bank. Plaintiff introduced certain copies of the dissolution bond, the judgment of Oglethorpe superior court fixing the amount in the hands of the garnishee belonging to the defendant,
We find no error in any of the several rulings of the court. Aside from the general rule that a court of general jurisdiction must be presumed to have had sufficient evidence before it to authorize a judgment rendered by it, and that this presumption can not be questioned except upon grounds of actual fraud, we know of no rule which would authorize a proceeding to set aside a judgment of the superior court in one county in any other county. The superior court of Wilkes county has no extraterritorial jurisdiction which will enable it to consider the validity of a judgment rendered in any other county in this State, unless it appears from the face of the judgment itself that it is not merely voidable but absolutely void, so that it may be attacked anjwhere by any one whose interest may be affected thereby. In the present case it was sought to devolve upon the superior court of Wilkes county the duty of determining the propriety and legality of proceedings leading up to a judgment of the superior court'of Oglethorpe county; a proceeding which is wholly incompatible with' our system of jurisprudence. As a general rule the several superior courts of this State have no extraterritorial jurisdiction which will enable the superior court of one county to set aside a judgment rendered by the superior court of a different county. Dixon v. Baxter, 106 Ga. 180 (32 S. E. 24). However, an exception to this rule is provided whereby a court having jurisdiction of the person of one
The court did not err in awarding a nonsuit. He could' well have shortened the procedure by sustaining the general demurrer in toto and dismissing the petition without the hearing of any evidence. ■ Judgment affirmed.