Court Opinion

ID: 9574913
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:09:32.137357+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:47:24.482412
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
dissenting.
The owner of land sought to prevent the approval and confirmation of a sale at confirmation proceedings of said land. He had mortgaged his land to the petitioner (lender) for $220,000 in 1973. The land was foreclosed upon and sold in 1974 for only $70,000.
The owner of the land (respondent and appellee herein) testified before the judge (who occupies the position of a jury in cases such as these) that his land was of the value of $169,500. Based upon the landowner’s testimony the trial judge entered a judgment refusing to allow confirmation of the sale. But the applicant (appellant) argues that it introduced testimony from an expert witness who testified that the land had a market value of only $63,000 at the time of the foreclosure sale, and obviously the majority opinion takes the position that the judge was required to accept this expert testimony.
Let it be pointed out first of all that an expert’s testimony need never be believed. It may be thrown out completely without rhyme or reason. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Williams, 44 Ga. App. 452 (1) (161 SE 853); Holmes v. Harden, 96 Ga. App. 365, 371 (100 SE2d 101).
Next, the judge (who occupied the function of a jury) was the final arbiter of which witness was credible and worthy of belief and as to what testimony he would give credence and that is what he did in this case. It cannot possibly be said that he violated his discretion because he elected to believe a witness (the owner of the land) as against.an expert witness offered by the lender.
As to the judge having the right to decide which witness to believe regardless of conflicts in the testimony, *104see Mitchem v. State, 53 Ga. App. 280 (185 SE 367). Further, when a witness testifies to facts which testimony is not absolutely consistent with other parts of his testimony, the judge may separate the wheat from the chaff and believe part of what a witness testifies and disbelieve other parts of what the same witness testifies. Campbell v. State, 157 Ga. 233, 235 (121 SE 306); Adams v. Adams, 218 Ga. 67, 68 (4) (126 SE2d 769); Powell v. Blackstock, 64 Ga. App. 442 (5) (13 SE2d 503).
Going a step further, the trial judge had the right to look beyond the owner’s testimony to the other facts in the case and facts in the record and to see whether or not same might have aided the landowner’s testimony. Rome Builders Supply v. Rome Kraft Co., 104 Ga. App. 488, 491 (122 SE2d 133); Steele v. Central of Ga. R. Co., 123 Ga. 237 (1) (51 SE 438). Here the record shows the property in question was mortgaged in one year for $220,000 and a year later was foreclosed upon and sold for only $70,000. The learned trial judge most assuredly had the right to determine that the lender was a sagacious and wise dealer in land and in deciding how much the land was worth and how much they might safely lend upon it.
It would strain the credulity of almost anyone, including the learned trial judge, to believe the lender found the land to be worth $220,000 one year and that it had fallen to the pitiful value of $70,000 just one year later. What happened to the difference of $150,000?
This is not a case where a trial judge has abused his discretion, nor should the judge be placed in a straitjacket and required to render a decision in favor of a party to the case simply because he has an expert witness testifying in opposition to the testimony of the owner of the land and to all of the facts in the record.
I most respectfully dissent and find that the trial judge should be affirmed; otherwise, we are in the position of holding that the "any evidence” rule as to verdicts of juries and findings by judges who sit without juries is to be nullified and destroyed.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Bell and Presiding Judge Deen concur in this dissent.