49 S.E.2d 544 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1948
1, 2, 3. The charges complained of in the first, second, and third special grounds of the motion for new trial do not show error, and these grounds were properly overruled.
4. The verdict for the plaintiff was supported by the evidence, and the court did not err in overruling the motion on the general grounds.
1. The first special ground of the motion for new trial alleges error in an excerpt from the charge of the court on the question of damages. The court charged that, if the plaintiff was entitled to recover, "he would be entitled to recover a fair and reasonable compensation for the damage which he sustained by reason of the injuries, if any, inflicted upon the crops, directly and approximately resulting from the conduct of the defendant, or the defendant's *660
stock, as alleged in the petition." This charge is attacked as being unsound as a principle of law applicable to the case, and that it gave to the jury a measure of damages different from the correct measure, and was so contradictory to a correct charge previously given as to be misleading and confusing to the jury. The defendant invokes the rule that the jury should not be left to decide between conflicts in the charge, and the further rule that an incorrect charge is error, unless it is withdrawn or retracted, even though the court charges correctly on the same subject in some other part of the charge. See Strange v.Boatright,
2. The second special ground complains of a sentence from the charge respecting nominal damages. Since the jury did not return a verdict for nominal damages, this charge was harmless. "The charge that the jury could find nominal damages if no actual damage was proved, if error, was harmless error, because the jury did not find nominal damages." Akers Lumber Co. v. JohnsonLumber Co.,
3. The third special ground alleges error in an excerpt from *661 the charge to the effect that the measure of damages was the actual damage to the crops at the time they were injured or destroyed, and at the place where the injury and destruction occurred, and not the market value at the time of maturity or during the marketing season. We see no error in this charge.
4. The defendant contends that the charges excepted to were essentially a charge on general damages, and that, where there is no prayer for general damages, a charge on that subject is error. See Southern Ry. Co. v. Black,
5. The defendant states in his brief that there was evidence that the defendant's livestock ran at large on the plaintiff's land, and destroyed growing crops of cabbage and onions and damaged the plaintiff in the sum of $750. The verdict for the plaintiff was for $300. It thus being admitted that the verdict was supported by the evidence, the court did not err in overruling the motion on the general grounds.
Judgment affirmed. Sutton, C. J., and Felton, J., concur.