Opinion
39977.
DECIDED FEBRUARY 7, 1963.
Action for damages. Murray Superior Court. Before Judge Davis.
J. Paxson Amis, for plaintiff in error.
McCamy, Minor Vining, John T. Minor, III, contra.
A juror is not disqualified because his wife is related to the wife of a party to the cause.
DECIDED FEBRUARY 7, 1963.
After a verdict for the plaintiff, Douglas Fraker, in a suit for damages growing out of an intersection collision, Judd Wheat, the defendant, moved for a new trial on the ground only that the wife of the foreman of the jury was first cousin to plaintiff's wife and second cousin to defendant's wife. To the overruling of the motion he excepts.
T "Foul, foul play," the defendant cried; "That I by kinsman be not trammelled, Let the issue again be tried Before another jury impanelled.
Remember how from John at Runnymede The Charta was forced and wrested
That no matter what the issue or the deed By my peers it must be tried and tested. With juror mine adversary durst Try the cause, whose wife is second cousin to my wife And to plaintiff's wife a first. A new trial, sire, I demand to settle strife."
"No foul play do I find or see," The judge replied. "Foreman's wife to thine And to plaintiff's wife may kinsman be, But to Doug and thee no kinship do I find.
"The groom and bride each comes within The circle of the other's kin; But kin and kin are still no more Related than they were before."
Central R. Bkg. Co. v. Roberts, 91 Ga. 513, 517 ( 18 S.E. 315); Garrett v. State, 203 Ga. 756, 768 (5) ( 48 S.E.2d 377); and see Everett v. Culberson, 215 Ga. 577 (8) ( 111 S.E.2d 367); Smith v. State, 2 Ga. App. 574 ( 59 S.E. 311).
Thus, it doth not appear For any cause or reason told That the juror was not thy peer The case to try and verdict mold.
Moreover, when kinships we sought to learn It doth not appear that as best befits One who would a kinsman spurn Thou revealedst that `cousin' did on the panel sit.
See Jennings v. Autry, 94 Ga. App. 344 (5) ( 94 S.E.2d 629); Joyner v. State, 208 Ga. 435 (2) ( 67 S.E.2d 221).
Thy day in court thou hast had," The judge asserted, "and law commands That, no error made, whether good or bad, The issued tried and settled stands." Judgment affirmed. Felton, C. J., and Russell, J., concur.