18 Ga. App. 128 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1916
The suit was upon a joint promissory note. Upon the trial.it developed that one of the joint makers was the .wife of the other. The defendants pleaded not est factum. Later, by amendment, the defendants filed a plea of recoupment, in which they attempted to set off certain damages, consisting of expenses incurred in giving a bond to dissolve a garnishment and employing an attorney to make an answer, and for lost time in connection with the dissolution and the answer. The plaintiff proved by the subscribing witness that both of the joint makers signed the note, and the defendants each testified that the note was a forgery. In proof of the consideration of the note there was testimony that the husband had purchased some goods from the original payee, but no proof that the goods purchased by him constituted the entire consideration of the note; and there was testimony in general terms that both makers owed, the payee prior to giving the note. It does not appear what proportion of the amount represented by the note was owed by each maker, or whether the original indebtedness, like the note itself, was joint, the only testimony as to the consideration of the note being the statement of the attesting witness: “I know that these negroes [the defendants] owed my father this store account.” During the trial the plaintiff dismissed the suit as to the wife, and the jury rendered a verdict against the other joint maker, after allowing a set-off by way of recoupment.
There was no issue that authorized siich a verdict. The plaintiff,
The exceptions to certain excerpts from the charge of the court can not he considered, for they are not approved by the trial judge. ■ And it is not necessary to discuss the demurrers further than to say that the defects to which they were addressed were cured by amendment. The plaintiff had the right to maintain the action as bearer; and the defendants were not concerned in the title of the owner, for it did not appear that any inquiry into the title of the note would have aided the defendants in setting up the defense actually relied upon by them. Judgment reversed.