128 Ga. 358 | Ga. | 1907
This was an application for an injunction by Mrs. M. E. Lanier against Nunnally & Co. Nunnally & Co. had obtained two judgments against Mrs. Lanier, and executions issued thereon had been levied upon her property. She had been served,, as appears from the entry of service, by the petition and process being left at her most notorious place of abode. She alleges, that her husband received the papers from the officer and concealed them from her; and that she had a meritorious defense, which consisted, of the fact that the debts upon which the judgments were founded were debts of her husband and she was not in any way liable thereon. She charges, in her petition, that her husband colluded with the defendants in obtaining the judgments against her, and states, in her petition, various acts which she claims were sufficient to show such collusion. Defendants, in their answer, deny all of the acts of fraud and collusion set forth in the petition, and distinctly aver that the debts sued upon were the obligations of Mrs. Lanier and not those of her husband. The averments of the petition are abundantly sufficient to show that a fraud was perpetrated upon Mrs. Lanier by her husband, but the averments of the answer of Nunnally & Co. are amply sufficient to show that they had no-knowledge of this fraud and did not participate therein. The judge refused to grant the injunction, and the plaintiff excepted.
Mrs. Lanier having been served in the suits which resulted in the judgments, by the officer leaving the petitions and process at her most notorious place of abode, she was bound by the judgments. The judgments rendered against her in such suits were legal and valid even though she never received the petitions and process. Moye v. Walker, 96 Ga. 769, and case cited. Counsel, in his brief,, concedes that the judgments are valid and binding, unless such
We can not agree with counsel in this view. The purpose which a court of equity had, when it first exercised jurisdiction to annul a judgment obtained by fraud, was to prevent the adverse party from obtaining an unconscionable advantage as the result of a judgment at law. One who has obtained a judgment at law according to the prescribed method, and who is not chargeable with any conduct which would amount to fraud or imposition upon the ad
Judgment affirmed.