46 S.E.2d 207 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1948
Where in a claim case involving personal property the claimant admits a prima facie case in favor of the plaintiff in fi. fa., but introduces uncontradicted evidence of her title, thereby rebutting the prima facie case, and there are no facts or circumstances inconsistent with the truth of the claimant's evidence, by reason of which the jury might legitimately question the credibility of the witnesses on account of their interest in the result of the suit, and nothing more appears, a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in fi. fa. is unauthorized and without evidence to support it.
We are unable to perceive anything suspicious in the manner in which the purchases were made. The claimant had every right to engage agents, borrow the money from one of the agents, repay him in cash, and at whatever time was agreeable between them, as she did. Counsel for the plaintiff in fi. fa. contends, however, that the indorsement on the check given to R. L. Henry Sr. stated that it was given in payment of the listed articles purchased by "D. Krasner," and that "D. Krasner" could be any one of innumerable Krasners. This circumstance does not, we think, becloud or disprove Mrs. Krasner's title. Mr. Henry testified that he knew that David and Norman Krasner were acting as agents for someone else whose name was "D. Krasner," and that, in signing the truck registration certificate transferring the ownership of the Ford truck, he assigned it to D. B. Krasner. This testimony, as well as David W. Krasner's denial of ownership, would seem to dispose of the possibility that "D. Krasner" was David W. Krasner, which, so far as we know, leaves, from among the "innumerable Krasners," only the claimant D. B. Krasner as "D. Krasner." Whether or not the typewriter used in writing the body of the bill of sale from C. C. Henderson to D. B. Krasner was one different from the one used in filling in the purchaser's name, D. B. Krasner, is of no consequence. It does not appear from the evidence when the name was typed into the bill of sale, and it would therefore be presumed that it was typed in prior to the execution; moreover, we are unable to determine from an examination of a photostatic copy of the bill of sale that there was any name expunged and the name D. B. Krasner inserted in its stead. We conclude, therefore, *425 that there were no circumstances in this case which would have justified the jury's disregard of the claimant's positive and uncontradicted evidence of her title. This evidence destroyed the prima facie case of the plaintiff in fi. fa., and consequently there was no evidence sufficient to authorize a verdict in favor of the plaintiff in fi. fa. and against the claimant. It follows that the court erred in denying the claimant's motion for a new trial.
Judgment reversed. Sutton, C. J., and Parker, J., concur.