Court Opinion

ID: 9849122
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:34:57.773892+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:01.517508
License: Public Domain

*462Head, Presiding Justice,
dissenting. I am convinced that the judgments of the trial judge denying the motion for new trial and the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict should have been affirmed by this court.
In so far as Georgia authorities are concerned, the'majority opinion rests on the decision of this court in James v. Tarpley, 209 Ga. 421 (73 SE2d 188). In James v. Tarpley, the majority opinion stated the rule that a court of equity may rescind and cancel a contract upon the ground of mistake of fact material to the contract of one party only. However, the rule was applied by the court that ignorance of. a fact due to negligence is no cause for rescinding a contract, since in that case the complaining party did not consult a physician, and was not advised that the injuries suffered were of a minor nature. In the present case, the plaintiff alleged, and the evidence amply authorized the finding, that the contract relied upon by the defendant was entered into by both parties upon a mistake of fact based upon the representations of a physician that the plaintiff’s injuries were of a very minor character. James v. Tarpley, supra, is not in point on its facts with the present case.
It appears from the record that the insurance representative of the defendants called the physician consulted by Mrs. Bateman, the plaintiff, by telephone, in the presence of the plaintiff and her husband, and in. connection with this telephone conversation, testified in part as follows:
“Q. Did you not tell Mrs. Bateman with the group, ‘Dr. Fleming said you are O. K.’?
“A. ‘Will be O.K.,’ I believe is right.
“Q. And did you not add,‘In a few days’?
“A. Possibly so.”
The testimony of the plaintiff was to the effect that the agent for the insurance company did say that the plaintiff would be all right in a few days, and the insurance agent’s answer, being evasive, should be construed most strongly against him, and his admission must be taken as true that he did say that she would be al-1 right in a few days. There is no conflict as to the representation of the physician to the plaintiff that her injuries were of a minor character, and there is nothing in the record to *463indicate that the plaintiff had any reason to believe that she had anything more than minor injuries.
What more should a court of equity require of an injured person, who has a desire to ascertain the extent of injuries received, than to rely upon the advice of a physician skilled in the treatment of such injuries? The allegations and proof of mutual mistake of fact were amply sufficient to authorize the jury to set aside the release.
In my view, however, perhaps a more serious objection to the direction by this court that a judgment be entered for' the defendants appears from the record in the case. The defendants brought to this court by their bill of exceptions all of the proceedings in the cause. The petition originally did not set out the agreement between the parties which this court has held is conclusive. The defendants filed a plea denominated a special plea, which was, in fact, a plea in abatement, based on alleged payment, and setting out the agreement by the parties. Subsequently the plaintiff amended her petition making allegations to show a mutual mistake of fact, which, as hereinbefore pointed out, was supported by the evidence. Counsel for the defendants never invoked any ruling by the trial court on their plea in abatement, alleging payment, and none was made.
Demurrers, pleas, and answers shall be disposed of in the order named, and all demurrers and pleas shall be determined before trial. Code § 81-1002; Smith v. Hornsby, 70 Ga. 552; Anderson v. Fulton County Home Builders, 147 Ga. 104 (92 SE 934); Seaboard Air-Line Ry. Co. v. Jolly, 160 Ga. 315 (127 SE 765). A party may waive or renounce what the law has established in his favor. Code § 102-106; Jones v. Mills, 216 Ga. 616 (118 SE2d 484). Where a defendant goes to trial without invoking a ruling by the trial judge on a demurrer or plea filed by such defendant, the defendant thereby waives any right that he might have to a ruling thereon, and the court does not err in treating such demurrers or pleas as abandoned. Grant v. Grant, 202 Ga. 40 (2) (41 SE2d 534).
It is my view that the defendants, having abandoned their plea in abatement asserting payment by not invoking a ruling of the trial court thereon, could not thereafter urge the same mat*464ters set up in the plea in abatement as a basis for a judgment in their favor notwithstanding the verdict. If the plea in abatement asserting payment was relied upon, a ruling of the court should have been invoked by counsel for the defendants. Having elected to go to trial on the allegations of the petition asserting mutual mistake, and the evidence amply supporting the verdict of the jury rescinding the contract, the defendants were not entitled to a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The act of 1957 (Ga. L. 1957, pp. 224, 236; Code Ann. § 110-113), providing for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, did not repeal other provisions of the law applicable to orderly procedure in the courts of this State.
The plea of payment was never established under the evidence in the case. The undisputed evidence shows that, at the time the release was executed by the plaintiff, no amount was paid to her, that some days later a check or draft was received through the mail, payable jointly to Mr. and Mrs. Bateman, and that an amount included therein represented damages to the automobile owned by Mr. Bateman. The undisputed evidence further shows that this check was returned to the insurance company and retained by tlie insurance company, and that a check was subsequently issued in a like amount and mailed to Mr. and Mrs. Bateman, and that this check was never paid or tendered for payment.
“Bank checks and promissory notes are not payment until themselves paid.” Code § 20-1004. “A bill, acceptance, or note of the debtor or a third person is not an extinguishment of the original demand, unless there is an express agreement to receive it as payment.” Hall’s Self-Feeding Cotton Gin Co. v. Black, 71 Ga. 450, 456; Norton v. Paragon Oil-Can Co., 98 Ga. 468, 470 (25 SE 501). It is the rule that, where a check or draft is accepted as payment, it operates as payment. McEachern v. Industrial Life &c. Insurance Co., 51 Ga. App. 422 (180 SE 625); Nash Motors Co. v. Harrison Co., 52 Ga. App. 333 (183 SE 202); Atlanta West Point R. Co. v. McCord, 54 Ga. App. 811, 817 (189 SE 403); Pan-American Life Ins. Co. v. Carter, 57 Ga. App. 294 (195 SE 326). See also Howard v. Ga. Home Ins. Co., 102 Ga. 137 (29 SE 143). The present case does not fall within *465any rule stated in any of the cases above cited. At no time did the defendants pay any amount or tender a check to the plaintiff for her damages. The check issued by the insurance company was to the plaintiff and her husband, and included damages to the automobile. There is no evidence that the plaintiff ever agreed to accept any check of any character. There is no evidence that her husband was her agent, or that she had authorized him to receive a check in her behalf, and when the insurance company retained the original check, and issued another check in like amount and mailed it to the plaintiff and her husband, the most that the defendants were entitled to insist upon was that it was a question of fact for the jury as to whether or not there had been a rescission of the contract by a return of the check. Certainly the plaintiff had complied with the requirement that one who seeks rescission of a contract must restore or offer to restore the consideration received thereunder. Williams v. Fuoche, 157 Ga. 227 (121 SE 217).
The foregoing is sufficient, in my judgment, to show that the defendants were not entitled to a judgment notwithstanding the verdict under any theory.