136 Ga. 173 | Ga. | 1911
King Brothers & Company brought their equitable petition against the Southern Railway Company and H. E. Johnson, alleging, in substance, that Johnson, who was an employee of the railway company, had assigned to them his wages earned during the months of August and September, 1908; that notice of the assignment was given to the railway company, which has in its hands, accruing from the wages of Johnson, a sum equal to the amount of the assignments; that they had demanded payment of the amount from the railway company and payment thereof was refused;' and that upon the failure and refusal of the railway company to pay over the amount of the assignments to the plaintiffs upon demand, the railway company became the custodian of the same for the sole use and benefit of the plaintiffs.' The prayer was for a judgment against the railway company, and a decree that the title to the salary account of H. E. Johnson while in the employment of the railway company, to the extent of the assignments, be decreed to be in plaintiffs, .and that the railway company be
Counsel for the defendant in error argues, in support of the correctness of the court’s ruling, that the plea stricken by the court ■was an attempt on the part of the railway company to plead the infancy of its codefendant, and as such plea of infancy is personal it was not available to the railway company. We do not so construe the defense stricken by the court. The effect of the plea was that the minor’s wages were legally due to the father and not to the minor, and that the assignment of the wages under the circumstances therein alleged was ineffectual to defeat the father’s right to the wages of his minor son, and that the company’s payment to the person legally entitled to collect the wages of its employee exonerated it from further liability. There were two claimants to the fund held by the railway company as a stakeholder. It was both the right and the duty of the railway company, in possession of all the facts, to decide the question as to the ownership of the fund. Franklin v. Southern Railway Company, 119 Ga. 855 (47 S. E. 344). The railway company decided that the money belonged to the father under the circumstances alleged in its plea, and in this conclusion it was right. The statute declares that until majority the child remains under the control of the father, who is-entitled to his services and the proceeds of his labor, unless this