Court Opinion

ID: 9452253
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:34:45.482837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:08.355499
License: Public Domain

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
Before TUTTLE, Chief Judge, GEW-IN, Circuit Judge, and HUGHES, District Judge.
BY THE COURT:
By its motion for rehearing, appellant complains that in our opinion we stated, “We conclude that the issue here to be decided is one of law.” In appellee’s post-argument brief, it is stated, “We again call attention to the fact that the Government now states that the only issue in this case is whether the debentures on their face constitute indebtedness * * *. On that assumption, it is clear, as the court noted on oral argument, that there is no question of fact for the jury, since the interpretation and construction of a contract is a question of law for the courts. Ga.Code, Section 20-701 (1933); Williston on Contracts, Section 616, Note 7; Encyc. of Georgia Law: Contracts, Section 51.” The only question before the court here is whether the debentures on their face constitute indebtedness when issued under the circumstances of this case, as to which there is no dispute of fact. Thus there is nothing before the court except a legal question.
As a matter of law, the debentures here in question do not create a “debt” within the contemplation of the applicable statute.
The motion for rehearing is denied.
GEWIN, Circuit Judge, dissents.