Court Opinion

ID: 9586040
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:06:36.715202+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:19.308918
License: Public Domain

Townsend, Judge,
concurring specially. 1. The pleadings and evidence in this case affirmatively show that the defendant Julia Willis and her husband received a loan from the plaintiff Midland Finance Company for the purpose of purchasing an automobile, and that they jointly signed & bill of sale to secure debt securing the loan which listed the property included in the bill of sale as being the automobile purchased and a lot of described household furniture. While the defendant Julia Willis contended that her husband was the sole purchaser of,the automobile, and that she acted as surety only, the evidence authorized a finding that the defendants were co-owners of the automobile, and that the defendant Julia Willis was the sole owner of the furniture, which she had owned prior to the execution of the bill of sale to secure debt.
As to the automobile, it follows that the 'defendants were tenants in common and each had a right to the. possession and use of the automobile jointly with the other. The evidence demands a finding that on February 2, 1957, the automobile was involved in an accident and abandoned, and thereafter seized and held by police officers. The only evidence as to the use of the car is that of Julia Willis, who swore that she could not drive, was not in the car at the time, knew nothing about its whereabouts and was unable to give the plaintiff any information about what had happened to it; that her husband ha'd taken it off and told her he lent it to a cousin. The jury was authorized to find that a demand for both the furniture and automobile was made “a few days” before March 15, when the action was instituted, and that on March 15, Julia Willis was personally served with bail process; that at the same time the marshal serving the process levied on and seized the furniture and, not finding the automobile, imprisoned the defendant; that she later executed a replevy bond and was released, and 'that the automobile also was subsequently turned over to the custody of the marshal.
There is no question before us in this case as to whether the imprisonment of the defendant under bail process was legal. At that time she surrendered all of the property to the marshal *447which, under the evidence before us, she had in her possession and control. Being a tenant in common as to the automobile she had no right of possession of it hostile to that of her husband, arid if in fact she had no knowledge and no means of acquiring knowledge of its whereabouts so as to exercise her own right of possession over it, she could be guilty of no conversion in failing to deliver it to the plaintiff by reason of her having allowed her husband to take it away, he having as much right to its use as she.
As to the furniture, however, the case is different. If the defendant converted it to her own use as against the right of the plaintiff, there is evidence to support a verdict against her in the trover action. The evidence is that a few days before the action was filed the plaintiff demanded the furniture as well as the automobile. The fact that it was not turned over to the plaintiff, plus the fact that thereafter the defendant resisted the plaintiff’s claim, claimed title thereto adversely to the plaintiff, and filed a replevy bond, authorizes the presumption that the demand was refused, and an inference that the defendant converted this property to her owil use prior to the institution of the action. Smith v. Commercial Credit Co., 28 Ga. App. 403 (111 S. E. 821). The brief of counsel for the plaintiff in error states, “We readily concede that the posting of bond for the property or its condemnation money gives rise to the presumption that the defendant was in possession of same. This presumption unless refuted would have rendered further proof of conversion unnecessary.” The sole question, therefore, is whether the burden was on the plaintiff to show the manner in which the demand which it made was refused, or whether it was on the defendant. It appears to me that the plaintiff made out a prima facie case for conversion of all of the property prior to the institution of the action by showing title and possession in the defendants jointly, a demand, and a failure to deliver, but that the defendant then carried the burden of proving that as to herself, there had been no conversion of the automobile. I do not think, however, that she offered any evidence which would demand a finding that as to herself there had been no conversion of the furniture. Code § 107-101 provides: “In actions to recover the possession of chattels, it shall not be necessary to prove any conversion of the property where the defendant is in possession when the action *448is brought.” In Robbins v. Welfare Finance Corp., 95 Ga. App. 90 (96 S. E. 2d 892) we held that where the defendant is lawfully in possession of chattels pledged under a bill of sale to secure debt, it is necessary to show a demand and refusal. The reason for this holding, as there shown, is that mere failure to pay a debt is not of itself sufficient to constitute conversion, certainly not until the defendant is placed no notice that' the plaintiff desires to rescind the contract. This decision is shown by a demand. There was a demand .in this case. It was followed by a failure (for what reason, it is not shown) to offer the furniture back, and further followed by the posting of replevy bond and the filing of an answer denying that the plaintiff had any right or title to the defendant’s furniture. There was, accordingly, sufficient evidence of conversion to authorize a finding in favor of the plaintiff on this issue.
2. Code § 107-105 provides: “The plaintiff in an action to recover personal property may elect whether to accept an alternative verdict for the property or its value, or whether to demand a verdict for the damages alone, or for the property alone and its hire, if any; and it shall be the duty of the court to instruct the jury to render the verdict as the plaintiff may thus elect.” Code § 107-106 provides: “An alternative verdict in an action of trover so far vests the title to the property sued for in the plaintiff, that, until the judgment is paid by the defendant, such judgment shall have the first lien on the property sued for, to the exclusion of all other claims whatsoever.” Code § 110-514 provides: “When a verdict for damages shall be rendered in favor of a plaintiff in trover, and a judgment entered thereon, the said verdict and judgment shall not have the effect of changing the property which is the subject-matter of the suit, or vesting the same in the defendant in said suit, until after the damages and costs recovered by the plaintiff in such action are paid off and discharged, except so far as to subject such property to sale under and by virtue of an execution issuing upon such judgment in such action of trover, and to make the same liable to the payment of the damages and costs recovered in said action, in preference to any other judgment, order, or decree against the defendant in said action of trover.” In Mitchell v. Printup, 19 Ga. 579 (1) it was held: “Where the verdict and judgment in *449trover is in the alternative, the defendant must elect either to deliver the property within the time prescribed. . . It is unquestionably a relaxation of the law and a privilege to defendants to permit them to deliver up the property in discharge of the damages recovered against them.” The effect of such verdict and judgment, as set out in Southern Express Co. v. Lynch, 65 Ga. 240 (1) is that if the defendant does not elect to surrender the property within the period stated in the judgment, the judgment becomes absolute for money. An execution based on such a judgment is general against all of the defendant’s property and special against the property which is the subject matter of the action, and subj ects that particular property to levy and sale for the purpose of realizing a sufficient amount to pay off the judgment. Frick & Co. v. Davis, 80 Ga. 482 (5 S. E. 498).
Counsel for the plaintiff in error contends that, since the plaintiff can recover no amount greater than the debt plus interest, the plaintiff would not be entitled to a judgment for the property itself because this is greater than the amount of the debt. But the defendant here has not been harmed, even if this contention is correct, for the reason that the defendant has a right to choose whether to surrender the property, or to force the plaintiff to sell it and satisfy his debt out of the proceeds if he can. Apparently the defendant also exercised this right of election, since the 10 days allowed to elect to surrender the property expired before this writ of error was sued out. She is in no danger that the plaintiff will seize property having a greater value than the debt for the reason that hers was the final decision as to whether the plaintiff should have a property judgment or a money judgment with a special lien on the property for its satisfaction. The form of the judgment, based on the plaintiff’s election of an alternative verdict, was entirely proper.