Court Opinion

ID: 9625304
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:35:51.348455+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:05.891941
License: Public Domain

Clark, Judge.
In this appeal from a judgment granting a year’s support to appellee widow, the caveators, adult children of decedent’s previous marriage, seek a reversal on the basis of three enumerations of error. They are: (1) refusal by the trial court to admit in evidence testimony of the probate judge and of one of the appraisers relating to failure of the appraisers to meet as a body or to hear evidence as to circumstances of the decedent; (2) failure of the judge "to instruct the jury to disregard evidence which he had admitted predicated upon appellee’s showing wrongful action of appellant reducing the value of ,decedent’s estate, which appellee failed to do”; and (3) that the evidence showed that the award of the appraisers was grossly excessive, "and there being no evidence at all to the contrary.”
Following application by the widow for a year’s support, three of the five appraisers appointed by the probate judge filed their return. This was in the usual form and recited that "we have assessed and set apart as being necessary for the support and maintenance. . . $27,200, which the said widow has selected to take as follows: The house and that tract of land upon which said house is located described as follows: [legal description] together with the contents and household furniture therein.” A caveat to this return was filed by present appellants. They attacked the award as being excessive and also averred the conduct of the appraisers failed to conform to legal requirements. At the conclusion of the probate court trial, the judge ruled only as to the amount, holding it to be excessive and further stated "that said amount should not be in excess of $8,000.”
The widow filed an appeal to the superior court. In conformance with our statute (Code § 6-501) the whole matter was there presented de novo before a jury. Their verdict was in awkward language, reading: "It is the decision of this jury, that the decision for the Probate Court that the full amount of $27,200, be set aside for twelve months’ support.” The judge then polled the jury *549individually and as a group. His judgment entered upon the verdict states this was done "in order to make the intention of the jury absolutely clear and further to clear up any irregularities or peculiarities of expression, and technical inaccuracies in the jury’s verdict.” The judgment further declared the residence and all household furniture to be set aside as the year’s support.
The caveators thereafter filed a motion for judgment n.o.v. and a motion for new trial. When both motions were denied this appeal followed: Held:
1. Was the superior court correct in refusing to permit testimony as to the manner in which the appointed appraisers acted in reaching the result set forth in their return? Yes.
The reason for this affirmative answer is cogently stated by Justice (later Chief Justice) Fish1 in Moore v. Moore, 126 Ga. 735, 739 (55 SE 950). There, after noting that the statute does not prescribe any procedure for the appraisers, the eminent Justice wrote: "If, in making their return, the appraisers have acted upon insufficient or misleading information as to the property owned by the decedent at the time of his death, or as to any other relevant fact upon which their return may in part be predicated, the law provides a remedy for any person whose legal rights may be injuriously affected thereby, by giving to such person the right to caveat the return; and, upon a trial of the issue thus raised before the ordinary [now probate judge], all the relevant facts may be developed by competent and legal evidence introduced for this purpose, and the return, if incorrect and improper, *550under the facts disclosed, may be corrected.”
This reasoning also applies to the de novo trial when an appeal is taken to the superior court. Since the parties must present evidence concerning the amount necessary for the twelve months’ maintenance, the circumstances and standing of the family, and the solvency of the estate, no inquiry is permissible as to whether the appraisers acted singly or as a group nor as to the evidence which they considered in making their return. See Knowles v. Knowles, 125 Ga. App. 642 (188 SE2d 800).
Moreover, "An appraiser appointed to set aside a year’s support to the family of a deceased person cannot impeach the return by testifying that the appraisers were governed by other considerations than a due regard to the circumstances and standing of the family previous to the death of the decedent.” Mays v. Mays, 25 Ga. App. 515 (2) (103 SE 805); Thigpen v. Thigpen, 115 Ga. App. 214, 215 (2) (154 SE2d 303).
Collins v. Collins, 110 Ga. App. 569 (139 SE2d 459) relied upon by appellants, does not hold that judicial inquiry can be made into the conduct of the appraisers but rules that a return which on its face arbitrarily excluded a minor child in total disregard of its rights should have been disallowed.
2. There is no merit to the second enumeration. After conditionally permitting the line of interrogation of the caveator-witness as to his handling of the father’s property during decedent’s lifetime, the trial judge permitted interrogation which resulted in successful rebuttal of any derogatory implications. The trial judge stressed to the jury in conformance with Code § 113-1002, that its duty was to determine from the evidence how much would be "a sufficiency from the estate for [the widow’s] support and maintenance for the space of 12 months... to be estimated according to the circumstances and standing of the family previous to the death . . . and keeping in view also the solvency of the estate.”
3. We next deal with the contention thát the award was excessive and contrary to the evidence. In doing so, we must consider these principles applicable to year’s support decisions: (a) "The jury trial in the superior court on appeal was a de novo investigation, and the jury could *551make such allowance for a year’s support as the evidence in their judgment warranted.” Calhoun Nat. Bank v. Slagle, 53 Ga. App. 553, 556 (186 SE 445); (b) The trial is not confined to the allowance or disallowance of the return and the jury may change or modify the return of the appraisers as to the amount or property set apart. Redfeam, Wills and Administration in Georgia (3d Ed.), § 332, pp. 289, 290; (c) "Upon the trial of a caveat to the appraisers’ award of year’s support, the appraisers’ return is prima facie evidence that the award is correct, and the caveator has the burden to rebut this evidence by showing that the award is unreasonable or excessive.” Brumbelow v. Brumbelow, 111 Ga. App. 665 (142 SE2d 855).
Submitted July 13, 1976
Decided September 10, 1976.
Moreover, there is a general principle which is applicable here as the trial judge in denying appellant’s motions specifically noted that "The appraisers’ award is prima facie correct and the jury so found, and there is certainly evidence to support its verdict.” (R-19) That principle has been repeatedly stated as follows: " 'When a case comes before this court, after the refusal of a new trial by the presiding judge, it comes not only with the presumption in favor of the verdict, but also stamped with the approval of the judge who tried the case, and where no prejudice or bias or corrupt means in reaching the verdict appear, we are not authorized to set it aside as being excessive.’ [Cits.]” Yale & Towne, Inc. v. Sharpe, 118 Ga. App. 480, 492 (164 SE2d 318); Jones v. Spindel, 128 Ga. App. 88 (2) (196 SE2d 22).
We recognize there is a great difference between the probate judge’s award of $8,000 and the jury’s verdict of $27,200. As the probate court’s judgment was permitted to be introduced without objection, the jury had the benefit of that lower amount. They decided that the widow was entitled to the award of the appraisers which consisted of the home property and contents.
Upon application of the controlling principles, we are constrained to hold that the verdict as approved by the trial judge should not be reversed.

Judgment affirmed.

Bell, C. J., concurs. Stolz, J., concurs specially.

*552B. P. Jackson, Jr., Marvin Hartley, Jr., for appellants.
Calhoun & Bryant, Malcolm F. Bryant, Jr., for appellee.

 William H. Fish (1849-1926) practiced law only six years before going on the bench. He served successively as Judge of the Macon County Court and Southwestern Circuit Superior Court and then from 1897 to 1923 on the Supreme Court. He wrote more than 2,000 opinions. Upon retirement he became Dean of the Mercer University Law School. Rated "as one of Georgia’s greatest Supreme Court Justices” (page 174 of A History of the Supreme Court of Georgia), his memorial is in 165 Ga. 907.