Court Opinion

ID: 9586861
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:15:59.476326+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:54.380804
License: Public Domain

Felton, J.,
dissenting. The sole question is whether the court erred in granting a new trial to the executor. The answer to this question depends on whether one caveating the return of appraisers granting a year’s support must prove that he is an interested party entitled to file a caveat or that he is legally qualified to represent a party who is an interested party. I think that the right to caveat the return of appraisers setting apart a year’s support is analogous to the right of one to contest the probation of a will. Where one who was not an interested party having an interest to protect contested a will the court looked to that fact first and ended the controversies *243at that point. Hooks v. Brown, 125 Ga. 122 (53 S. E. 583); Brown v. McBride, 129 Ga. 92 (58 S. E. 702). The question of the right to caveat a will should be first considered if the point is made. Wetter v. Habersham, 60 Ga. 193. Such a question has also been considered in other cases. Churchill v. Neal, 142 Ga. 352 (82 S. E. 1065); Varnedoe v. Cousins, 148 Ga. 229 (96 S. E. 326); Oslin v. State, 161 Ga. 967 (132 S. E. 542); 57 Am. Jur. p. 540, 541, 542, §§ 797, 798. The question of the right of caveator is also a basic question in a case involving a caveat to the return of appraisers setting apart a year’s support. Mathews v. Rountree, 123 Ga. 327 (51 S. E. 423); Montgomery v. McCants, 49 Ga. App. 324 (175 S. E. 397). The question of the excessiveness of a year’s support does not become justiciable until the evidence shows that the excessiveness is harmful to the caveator or to those he represents. A person not harmed and not interested in any way may not contest the award for academic or other purposes. In this case the executor alleged harm and injury to alleged legatees under the will but the will was not introduced in evidence. Since the will was not introduced in evidence there was no proof that the amount awarded by the jury was harmful to any legatee or any other person, and since it was admitted that there were no minor children and no debts, the executor was not entitled to prevail, and a verdict was demanded in favor of the return of the appraisers. There is no presumption one way or another in such a case as to who are legatees and a caveating executor must prove injury to those he seeks to represent. However, the widow is not contesting the verdict of the jury which reduced the award of the appraisers, but is relying upon it and resisting the grant of a new trial which she has a right to do. Where a party obtains by a verdict more than he is legally entitled to under the law the grant of a new trial to him is error. If the jury had found in favor of the appraisers’ return, the grant of a new trial to the executor on the ground that the award was excessive would have been error under the facts of this case, since the executor did not prove that the award was harmful to anyone whom it in its representative capacity was authorized to represent in filing the caveat. See Rozenberg v. Sund, 81 Ga. App. 856 (60 S. E. 2d, 390).
*244I think that the court 'erred in granting a new trial to the executor on the ground of excessiveness of the verdict of the jury.