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Grizzel v. Grizzel

Supreme Court of Georgia1940-05-14No. No. 13251
190 Ga. 219

Summary

Holding. The writ of error was dismissed because the wife waived her right to challenge the dismissal judgment by voluntarily using it to her benefit in the subsequent alimony proceeding, thereby impliedly consenting to its validity.

A wife filed suit against her husband seeking recovery of money and property she claimed belonged to her. The trial court dismissed her petition by general demurrer. Subsequently, in a separate divorce and alimony proceeding, the wife introduced the dismissal judgment as evidence to support her alimony claim, and the court instructed the jury that the judgment established the husband's ownership of the disputed properties. The jury denied the divorce but awarded alimony. The wife later filed a writ of error challenging the original dismissal judgment on the property claim.

The court found that by using the dismissal judgment to her advantage in the alimony proceeding and relying on it to support her alimony award, the wife had implicitly recognized the validity of that judgment. This conduct constituted more than a simple election between inconsistent remedies; rather, it amounted to actual consent to and approval of the judgment she now sought to overturn. Under established principles, a party who voluntarily acts with knowledge of the facts in a manner that recognizes a judgment's validity waives the right to challenge that judgment through a writ of error.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether a party waives the right to appeal by accepting benefits from an adverse judgment
  • Whether using an unfavorable judgment as evidence in a subsequent proceeding constitutes recognition of its validity
  • Standards for sustaining motions to dismiss writs of error based on undisputed facts

Procedural posture

The wife appealed by writ of error a trial court's dismissal of her petition for property recovery, after the husband filed a motion to dismiss the writ based on facts outside the record that were not denied by the wife.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Jenkins, Justice.

A wife sued her husband to recover or obtain a decree of title in her to certain money, as well as several thousand dollars worth of other property belonging to her as having been purchased with her funds. The judge dismissed her petition on general demurrer. A few days later, in the trial of the wife’s separate divorce and alimony suit pending in the same court against the husband, the wife introduced in evidence the previous judgment on demurrer, as showing the husband’s ownership of the properties, for the consideration of the jury in awarding alimony; and in accordance with the wife’s contention the court charged the jury that under this judgment “the title to the properties is in the defendant” husband. While the jury refused to grant the wife’s petition for divorce, they awarded her alimony, which has been paid, without any writ of error being taken from such decree. After the alimony trial and decree, the plaintiff tendered the present bill of exceptions to the judgment on demurrer to her petition to recover properties. In a sworn motion by the defendant husband to dismiss this writ of error, these facts are set forth. In a response by the plaintiff, seeking to amend her bill of exceptions on another ground of the motion, such facts are not denied. In the brief of her counsel they are conceded to be true. Held:

1. While a motion to dismiss a writ of error, dependent on the existence of alleged facts outside of the record, will be overruled where such averments of fact are denied by the plaintiff in error or his counsel, the motion will be sustained if the alleged facts would, if true, require a dismissal, and if, in response to the motion, there is either an admission or a failure to deny such facts. Tuells v. Torras, 113 Ga. 691, 693 (39 S. E. 455). See also Jones v. Head, 185 Ga. 857 (196 S. E. 725) ; Wilson v. Eatonton, 180 Ga. 598, 602 (180 S. E. 227).

2. “This court will in no case undertake to pass upon questions presented by a bill of exceptions, when it affirmatively appears that, even if the judgment of the court below were reversed, the plaintiff in error would derive no benefit from the adjudication.” Arnold v. Arnold, 180 Ga. 560, 564 (179 S. E. 715) ; Williams v. State, 187 Ga. 415, 417 (1 S. E. 2d, 27), and cit.; Davis v. Jasper, 119 Ga. 57 (45 S. E. 724).

3. As a general rule, any voluntary act by a party, with knowledge of the facts, by which he expressly or impliedly recognizes the validity and correctness of a judgment against him, will operate as a waiver of his right to bring error to reverse it, as where he receives affirmative relief under the judgment or takes a position inconsistent with his right of review. 2 Am. Jur. 969, 972, 975, 976, §§ 201, 206, 214; 4 C. J. S. 395, 396, 403, §§ 211, 212(a), 212(g), and cit.

4. Under the preceding rulings and the conceded facts in this ease as narrated, the act of the wife in claiming advantage from the judgment against her in the equitable proceeding pertaining to title amounted to more than a mere election between inconsistent remedies, such as would authorize the sustaining of a plea in the trial court against any subsequent effort on her part to attack the adverse judgment, of which she had thus availed herself. See Board of Education v. Day, 128 Ga. 156, 164, 166 (57 S. E. 359); Hardeman v. Ellis, 162 Ga. 664 (4), 685 (135 S. E. 195); Hartley v. Hartley, 173 Ga. 710, 713 (161 S. E. 358); Bacon v. Moody, 117 Ga. 207, 209 (43 S. E. 482) ; Wright v. Zeigler, 70 Ga. 501 (5, a), 512; Equitable Life Assurance Society v. May, 82 Ga. 646, 655 (9 S. E. 597); Kennedy v. Manry, 6 Ga. App. 816 (66 S. E. 29); Code, § 3-114. Suoli conduct in the alimony proceeding amounted to an actual consent to and approval of the validity and correctness of the judgment now attacked. Accordingly, the motion to dismiss the writ of error must be granted.

No. 13251.

May 14, 1940.

John S. Wood and William Butt, for plaintiff. -

Thomas H. Crawford and Morris <& Welsch, for defendant.

Writ of error dismissed.

All the Justices concur.