Court Opinion

ID: 9577317
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:33:47.373081+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:19.915852
License: Public Domain

On Motion Eor Rehearing
Counsel for the garnishee insists that the court erroneously construed certain decisions of this court and of the Supreme Court in holding in effect that where a garnishment is sued out *267in one county based upon a judgment obtained in another, the garnishment will not be dismissed on the ground that it does not affirmatively appear that the officer who took the same made out a certified copy thereof, and that the officer who served the summons transmitted such certified copy with his return to the court in which the judgment was obtained. Counsel for the garnishee insists that since garnishment proceedings must be strictly construed, the burden of showing the transmission of the certified copy of the garnishment proceedings by the officer is upon the plaintiff in garnishment, and he insists that the cases upon which he relies of both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court so hold. He particularly relies upon Atlanta & West Point Railroad Co. v. Farmers’ Exchange, 6 Ga. App. 405 (65 S. E. 165). He quotes in his motion for rehearing from page 408 as follows:
“Sections 4715 and 4716 of the Civil Code each prescribe methods by which assets in the hands of a prospective garnishee who resides in a different county from the debtor may be reached. One of the purposes of the provisions of each section, as pointed out by Chief Justice Bleckley in West v. Harvey, 81 Ga. 712 (8 S. E. 450) is ‘to show a connection between the garnishment and the proceedings elsewhere in the main case.’ See Civil Code, §§ 4549, 4550, 4715, 4716, 4717. The plaintiff in the present case proceeded under the provisions of § 4716. The garnishing judgment creditor did all that it was required by law to do. It made the required affidavit and bond. It then became the duty of the magistrate to make out the certified copy and deliver it to the constable, and the duty of the constable to transmit it to the justice’s court of DeKalb County, where the judgment was originally rendered. If the garnishing ' creditor should be held responsible in any case for the dereliction of officers charged with the performance of a duty, we do not think such a rule should be applied under the facts of this case; for the reason that before judgment was entered against the garnishees the certified copy was filed in the court which rendered the main judgment, and thus the connection between the proceedings in garnishment and ‘the main case’ was evidenced. The law does not fix a time within which the certified affidavit and bond shall be transmitted; and so far as the rights of any *268parties at' interest are concerned, it would seem that none of them would be prejudiced if, before the rendition of the judgment against 'the garnishee, the certified bond and affidavit were in the court in which the judgment was obtained.” He then expresses confidence that this court has due regard for the opinions written'by Judge Russell when he was on the Court of Appeals, particularly in view of the fact that he later became a distinguished Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of this State.
It will be noted that nowhere in the foregoing quoted portion of Judge Russell’s opinion in Atlanta & West Point Railroad Co. v. Farmers’ Exchange, supra, is it held upon whom is the burden of showing the transmission of the garnishment proceedings. However, in Central of Georgia Railway Co. v. Dickerson, 15 Ga. App. 293 (1) (82 S. E. 942), a subsequent decision written by Judge Russell, it is held as follows: "Under the provisions of section 5278 of the Civil Code [§ 46-604 of the Code of 1933] it was the duty of the officer issuing the summons of garnishment to make two copies of the proceeding and to return a certified copy of the proceedings to the justice’s court in Chattooga -County. It must be presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that the magistrate performed his duty. Nonperformance of this duty is not a matter which concerns the garnishee except so far as it may affect the garnishee’s interests, and it must be specially pleaded.”
At page 296 Judge Russell, speaking for the court, said: “The great bulk of the briefs in this case, the numerous citations of authority, and the earnestness with which the case is argued in the briefs, as well as the well-deserved reputation of the eminent counsel who represent the plaintiff in error, for profound learning, not only in the law but in literature as well, unconsciously impressed us so seriously that we were at first inclined to believe that perhaps the learned trial judge had committed a grave error and had outraged some of the most sacred principles of the law and perverted our Civil Code, to the injury of civil justice, and we suspected that, though the amount involved was small, the case was of serious moment on account of the principles involved, and because of the probable far-reaching consequences of our decision; and we were prepared to proceed to the utmost limit of laborious research in an en*269deavor to ascertain the truth, and, if possible, to administer justice in accordance with the laws of the land, regardless of the fact that the amount involved was small. But as a result of patient investigation we find this case, after all, is of that common variety known as a 'tomtit’, though vestured in all the plumage of a peacock. There was no error in any of the rulings of the trial judge, and we are constrained to repeat the inquiry of one of old (afflicted in like' manner as we),—'who .is this that darkeneth counsel by words?’ (Job, 38:2. See also Job, 42:3.”
The decision of this court on this question is in substance that, since there was no evidence in the record as to whether the garnishment proceedings were transmitted to the court wherein the original judgment was rendered in accordance with a part of the provisions of Code § 46-604, and since the question was not there raised, it must be presumed, in the absence of a showing in the record to the contrary, that the duty was performed. The burden therefore is on the garnishee to make this showing. This principle is based on Central of Georgia Rail-, way Co. v. Dickerson, supra, a decision rendered by the Court of Appeals and written by Judge Russell, for whose decisions this court entertains the highest regard.
The remaining question raised in the motion for rehearing is without merit.

Rehearing denied.

MacIntyre, P.J., and Gardner, J., concur.