Court Opinion

ID: 9587909
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:27:51.615774+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:43.985332
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Plaintiff in error on motion for rehearing strongly relies on the case of Leatherwood v. Boomershine Motors, Inc., 53 Ga. App. 592 (186 SE 897), contending that it is closely similar on the facts and controlling here. The Leatherwood case held that in an action for fraud it is “indispensable that the scienter be both alleged and proved” and that under the facts in that case the trial judge was warranted in concluding that scienter was not proved. The allegations were that the defendant’s agent represented that the car had not been driven more than 19,000 miles when as a matter of fact it had been driven about 60,000 miles, and that the car had its original paint when in fact it had been repainted. An examination of the record in that case clearly shows that the evidence authorized the finding that the car had several owners prior to the time it was traded to the defendant *850Boomershine and that prior to such time the speedometer had been run back and the car repainted without any knowledge on the part of the defendant corporation or any of its agents.
The proof in the instant case authorizes a finding that the president of the defendant corporation knew that the car in question was being sold as a “demonstrator,” that the term “demonstrator” indicates that the car had not been previously customer owned, and that he knew this car had been previously customer owned and that the term “demonstrator” as applied to this car was misleading. The proof was also clear that at the time the car was traded and possession delivered to the defendant corporation it had a speedometer reading of approximately 5,200 miles and that when it was sold to plaintiff the speedometer reading was 900 miles, and that the defendant was the only owner of the car during such period.
It thus appears that the facts of this case clearly distinguish it from the factual situation existing in the Leatherwood case, supra.

Motion for rehearing denied.