142 Ga. 153 | Ga. | 1914
The only point made in the motion for new trial is that the verdict.is without evidence to support it. In his plea the defendant admitted the execution of the note and that the plaintiff was the holder thereof, and assumed the burden of proof. He offered testimony tending to show that the consideration of the note was fertilizer, and that one of the cars of fertilizer, which was shipped from Tennille, Georgia, to him at Kite, Georgia, March 10, 1911, on being opened was discovered to have no tags attached to the sacks. The uncontradicted evidence was that the fertilizer had been duly registered, and there was no evidence that it had not been duly inspected. The sole reliance -of the defense was upon the fact that the sacks did not have tags attached to them. Upon this question there was a conflict of evidence, but the verdict was with the defendant; and, on motion for new trial by the plaintiff, the question of law is made, does the statute condemn the sale of fertilizer merely because tags were not attached to the sacks, there being compliance with the law in all other respects ? The sale was made in March, 1911, before the passage of the act approved August 22,1911 (Acts 1911, p. 172). The law under which the question is to be decided is the act of 1901 (Acts 1901, p. 65), embodied in the Civil Code of 1910, §§ 1771-1772 et seq. This law provides
The ruling here made does not in any way conflict with the decision in Allen v. Pearce, 80 Ga. 417 (7 S. E. 82), which was based on the act of 1877 (Acts 1877, p. 37, Code of 1882, § 1553 (a)), which required that the analysis of fertilizers be stated on the “brand tags,” and made it a misdemeanor for manufacturers and dealers to offer fertilizers for sale or distribution without having a brand tag attached to the parcels. Nor is it in conflict with the decisions in Holt v. Navassa Guano Co., 114 Ga. 666 (40 S. E. 735), and Zipperer v. Doyle, 124 Ga. 895 (53 S. E. 505), both of which were based on the act of 1891 (Acts 1890-91, p. 143, Political Code of 1895, §§ 1563, 1564, 1570), which contained provisions similar to those in the act of 1901, making it the duty of the dealer, before offering fertilizer for sale, to attach tax tags to the separate parcels (Civil Code of 1910, §§ 1793, 1794), and a further provision that all sales made “in any other manner than as required in this article shall be absolutely void.” Political Code of 1895, •§ 1570. This last section was not carried into the Code of 1910, but, as seen above, a substitute therefor was made, merely condemning the sale where there was no registration. Civil Code (1910), § 1794.
Judgment reversed.