184 Ga. 619 | Ga. | 1937
It is declared in the Code, § 25-2.01:
All of the foregoing are codifications from the act of 1904 (Ga. L. 1904, p. 79). Section 25-201 requires a license to engage in business (1) of making loans on “wages or salaries;” (2) of “buying wages or salaries.” Properly construed section 25-208 deals (1) with the sale of wages or salary, (2) with the assignment of wages or salary for the purpose of securing a pre-existing debt, and (3) with the assignment of wages or salaries for the purpose of securing a contemporaneous debt. That the legislature intended to include the first of these three subject-matters by this section is shown by the provision therein contained whereby it is declared that the discount charged in any sale or assignment of salary or wages shall not be greater than the rates and fees charged in sections 25-213 and 25-214, dealing exclusively with charges on loans, and by a consideration of the act of 1904 as a whole, which purports to regulate not only the business of taking assignments to secure debt, but also the business of buying wages or salary by absolute purchase. By section 25-208, any sale or assignment of wages or salary “shall be governed in all respects by the provisions of this chapter,” meaning Chapter 25 of the Code of 1933. A provision of that chapter is section 25-319 of the Code of 1933, being a codification of section 20 of the act of 1920 (Ga. L. 1920, pp. 215, 221, and is as follows: “Before any notice of assignment or purchase of wages or salaries shall be binding upon any individual, firm, or corporation to whom said notice is directed, said notice shall be accompanied by a copy of the contract of sale or assignment verified by the assignee to be a true and'correct copy thereof: Provided, that the assignee shall file said notice within five days from the time of the execution of the assignment; and Provided further, that the contract of assignment shall be made in duplicate, one copy to be retained by the assignor and the other by the assignee. Upon receipt of the no
Where a purchaser of wages or salary fails to comply with the provisions of section 25-319 in respect to giving the employer notice of the purchase within five days after the sale, the assignment is not “binding upon any individual, firm, or corporation to whom said notice is directed.” See Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Co. v. Nash Loan Co., 179 Ga. 52, 54 (175 S. E. 247); Southern Ry. Co. v. Symons, 54 Ga. App. 308 (187 S. E. 702).
Section 25-319, quoted and construed as above set forth, is not ineffective as being obnoxious to §§ 85-104, 96-111, 85-1803. These sections in the order named are substantially (a) “Estate is the quantity of interest which an owner has in property. It is applicable equally to realty and personalty. Any estate that can be created in the former may bo created in the latter, and the rules of construction as to both shall be the same. The provisions of this Code, under this title, when not restricted to one, shall apply to both.” (b) “The seller can convey no greater title than he has himself. The bona fide purchaser of a negotiable paper not dishonored, or of monejr, or bank bills, or other recognized ciu’rency, will be protected in his title though the seller had none.” (c) “All choses in action arising upon contract may be assigned so as to vest the title in the assignee, but he takes it, except negotiable instruments, subject to the equities existing between the assignor and debtor at the time of the assignment, and until notice of the assignment is given the person liable.”
Section 25-319, construed and applied as indicated in the first division, is not violative, for any reason assigned, of the provision of the constitution of the United States (article 14, section 1 (Code, § 1-815)), that no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or • immunities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of- the laws.
Upon application of the foregoing principles, the court did not err in sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the petition.
Judgment affirmed.