141 Ga. 357 | Ga. | 1914
The Youmans Jewelry Company, complaining as party plaintiff, against the Blackshear Bank, as party defendant, commenced suit for the recovery of the principal sum of two hundred dollars, besides interest, for the failure of defendant to collect and pay to plaintiff the amount of a certain check given to plaintiff by J. P. Price, on the Bank of Climax, for the sum aforesaid, and indorsed and placed with defendant for collection, because of the alleged negligence of defendant, its bank correspondents and agents; to which said suit defendant filed its answer denying any and all liability on- its part to plaintiff. Upon' the trial the jury returned a verdict for the defendant. The plaintiff made a motion for a new trial, which was overruled.
In the second ground of the amended motion for a new trial complaint is made that a witness for the defendant was permitted to testify, over objection, that “The custom is, when good banks send to other good banks items for collection, they send it on to other good banks. It is the custom among good banks, if an item is sent to a Savannah bank, on another point, for the Savannah bank to send it to the other point. I think this custom is pretty general. Banks do not usually use the express in making collections on points where there is only one bank; that is my information.” The objection urged to this evidence was that the same was “illegal, irrelevant, and inadmissible for the purpose of establishing an implied contract by the proof of custom, so as thereby to relieve defendant from its liability to plaintiff as fixed by the law.” The movant also excepted to the admission of the following evidence of a witness for the defendant: “So far as I know, it is the custom of good banks to handle their foreign items through their correspondents. 'If a reputable bank had an item on a bank in Thomasville, Georgia, and if the bank had no correspondent there in Thomasville, the usual course for the bank to pursue would be to send the item to some of their correspondents to handle for them. It would not be the usual course for the bank to send the item direct to Thomasville if they had no correspondent there. If the bank had a correspondent in Savannah, Georgia, it would be proper to send the item to their Savannah correspondent to handle for them, unless the depositor gave specific instructions concerning the handling of the item. In answer to your question as to whether or - not it is usual for banks to use express
Judgment reversed.