Case Name: Christine GILLARD and Marietta Green, Defendants-Appellants, v. GREAT SOUTHERN MORTGAGE & LOAN CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellee
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1978-02-01
Citations: 354 So. 2d 794
Docket Number: No. 49859
Parties: Christine GILLARD and Marietta Green, Defendants-Appellants, v. GREAT SOUTHERN MORTGAGE & LOAN CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellee.
Judges: Before PATTERSON, C. J., and ROBERTSON and BROOM, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 354
Pages: 794–801

Head Matter:
Christine GILLARD and Marietta Green, Defendants-Appellants, v. GREAT SOUTHERN MORTGAGE & LOAN CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellee.
No. 49859.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Feb. 1, 1978.
Kenneth Mayfield, Tupelo, for defendants-appellants.
C. Ashley Atkinson, McComb, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before PATTERSON, C. J., and ROBERTSON and BROOM, JJ.

Opinion:
PATTERSON, Chief Justice,
for the Court:
This appeal concerns the jurisdiction of the County Court of Pike County.
Great Southern Mortgage & Loan Corporation, a nonresident corporation domiciled in Oakdale, Louisiana, brought suit in the County Court of Pike County, Mississippi, against Christine Gillard, an adult resident citizen of Calhoun County, Mississippi, and Marietta Green, an adult resident citizen of Marshall County, Mississippi. It alleged the defendants executed a promissory note to the plaintiff and were in default, wherefore judgment was demanded for the sum due, interest and attorney's fees.
Christine Gillard was personally served with process in Calhoun County and Marietta Green was personally served with process in Marshall County. Neither of the defendants responded to the process and a default judgment was entered against them in Pike County. Motivated by writs of garnishment based upon the judgment, they moved, subsequent to the adjournment of court, to vacate the judgment which was sustained by the court.
The judgment creditor, Great Southern Mortgage & Loan Corporation, appealed to the circuit court which reversed the county court, reinstating its original default judgment. Gillard and Green appeal to this Court.
The sole issue is whether the county court had venue jurisdiction of the appellants based upon their failure to respond to personal service of process. In deciding it we note the cause of action did not accrue, the defendants do not reside, nor was process served in Pike County. Additionally, it is conceded the suit was filed in such county for the convenience of the appellee and its attorney.
The appellants rely upon Bryant v. Lovitt, 231 Miss. 736, 97 So.2d 730 (1957), for reversal. There Bryant contended he had the right to be sued in the county of his residence and household as provided by Mississippi Code Annotated section 1433 (1942) [§ 11-11-3, Miss.Code Ann. (1972)]. We upheld this contention and rejected the argument that Bryant had waived venue by not moving for a change of venue to the county of his residence. It appears to us that Bryant is probably in point by analogy. However, there is a difference in the facts inasmuch as Bryant contended he did not have personal notice of the suit until writs of garnishment issued on the judgment to his employer. The returns in Bryant indicate his wife was served with process which he attacked averring she had refused to accept it. No issue of this nature presently exists because the defendants were personally served with process.
Nevertheless, the appellee concedes that Bryant, supra, must be overruled if it is to prevail. The argument is advanced that Bryant has been substantially eroded by Wofford v. Cities Service Oil Co., 236 So.2d 743 (Miss.1970), and Leake County Coop (AAL) v. Dependents of Barrett, 226 So.2d 608 (Miss.1969), leaving its holding in doubt.
In Leake County Coop (AAL) the issue of venue jurisdiction was raised for the first time after the petitioners had participated in a workmen's compensation hearing, an appeal to the circuit court and to this Court. We held the Circuit Court of Leake County had jurisdiction on appeal from the Workmen's Compensation Commission although it initially lacked venue because the injury occurred in another county. After stating the difference between jurisdiction and venue, "[jjurisdiction connotes the power to decide a case on the merits, while venue connotes locality, the place where the suit should be heard," we held the movants had not seasonably filed for a change of venue and thereby waived it. We relied upon Mississippi Code Annotated section 1441 (1942) [§ 11-11-17, Miss.Code Ann. (1972)], the general statute for the decision:
such action shall not be dismissed because of such lack of proper venue, but on objection on the part of the defendant shall, by the court, be transferred to the venue to which it belongs. (226 So.2d at 615)
We are of the opinion Leake County Coop (AAL) is not in point for the reason the present appellants did not participate in the lower court trial as was the case in the decision cited.
In Wofford, supra, a suit in Hinds County against a resident of such county and two residents of Chickasaw County, process was served in conformity with Mississippi Code Annotated section 1847 (1942) [§ 13-3-9, Miss.Code Ann. (1972)], the statute for process upon joint defendants of different counties. The Chickasaw County defendants were personally served, but summons and alias summons for the Hinds County defendant were returned "not found." Thereafter, default judgment was taken against the Chickasaw County defendants.
Over a year later the judgment debtors moved to set the judgment aside because the Hinds County court lacked venue jurisdiction. The motion was overruled and when the case reached this Court, we held it was not filed within the time frame of Mississippi Code Annotated section 1433 (1942) [§ 11-11-3, Miss.Code Ann. (1972)]. We relied upon Ainsworth v. Blakeney, 232 Miss. 297, 98 So.2d 880 (1957), and King v. Ainsworth, 225 Miss. 248, 83 So.2d 97 (1955), for the decision. These cases reannounced the principle that venue is waived where a defendant does not timely apply for a transfer. A review of these cases again reveals the defendants participated in the trials and to that extent both differ from the facts in Wofford and this case.
In Wofford the Chickasaw County defendants did not participate in the trial, but they were served with process pursuant to the statute for joint defendants of different counties and more importantly, there is no evidence or suggestion the declaration was filed in Hinds County to invoke the jurisdiction of its courts to the detriment of the Chickasaw County defendants. To the contrary, it appears to be a suit brought in good faith in a county wherein one of the joint defendants resided. It differs from the present suit which was filed in Pike County with full knowledge that neither of the defendants resided or would be found there. In our opinion, neither Leake County Coop (AAL), supra, nor Wofford, supra, is dispositive of this appeal.
In our research we have not found any case in which the plaintiff has intentionally filed suit in a county not the residence of the defendant or where it was known he would not be found for the purpose of obtaining venue jurisdiction contingent upon the defendant's failure to apply for transfer to the county of his residence. Bryant, supra, in our judgment, is not a satisfactory basis for this decision because its process was served upon the wife of the defendant, creating an issue not presently relevant and, as mentioned, neither Wofford, supra, nor Leake County Coop (AAL), supra, is dispositive of the issue.
Additionally, in deciding the issue, we do not determine the county court erred in its reliance upon Bryant v. Lovitt, 231 Miss. 736, 97 So.2d 730 (1957), in vacating the default judgment nor that the circuit court erred in reinstating it under Wofford v. Cities Service Oil Co., 236 So.2d 743 (Miss. 1970). The divergent judgments are the result of differing opinions of this Court which have arisen through the years, leaving their meanings in doubt. Neither do we hold or imply that this suit was not brought in good faith because an interpretation, not illogical, of our decisions lends considerable support to plaintiff's position.
In our opinion Mississippi Code Annotated section 11-11-3 (1972), applicable to the county courts through Section 11-9-1, must be construed to determine the legislative intention concerning venue. It provides in pertinent part:
Civil actions of which the circuit court has original jurisdiction shall be commenced in the county in which the defendant or any of them may be found, or in the county where the cause of action may occur or accrue except where otherwise provided, . If a citizen resident in this state shall be sued in any action, not local, out of the county of his household and residence, . the venue shall be changed, on his application, before the jury is impaneled, to the county of his household and residence . . . . (Emphasis added.)
The section's major theme is that civil actions shall be brought in the county in which a defendant may be found or the cause of action occurs or accrues. The defendant's right to be sued in accord with the statutory terms has long been construed to be valuable and substantial, not a mere technical right. Jefferson v. Magee, 205 So.2d 281 (Miss.1967); Crosby v. Robertson, 243 Miss. 420, 137 So.2d 916 (1962); Long v. Patterson, 198 Miss. 554, 22 So.2d 490 (1945), and Trolio v. Nichols, 160 Miss. 611, 133 So. 207 (1931). The question actually presented is whether a plaintiff may intentionally bypass a mandate of the statute in order to invoke a later provision therein. We think it cannot because statutes must be construed in their entirety giving consideration to the words used as well as the purpose the legislature sought to accomplish by the enactment. Aikerson v. State, 274 So.2d 124 (Miss.1973).
A study of the entire statute makes apparent, we believe, that the legislative purpose was to establish venue of a defendant in the county where he might be found, usually the county of his residence, or where the cause of action occurs or accrues. It also recognizes that mistakes will inevitably be made and that suits will be erroneously, but in good faith, filed in counties where the defendant cannot be found and where no cause of action arose. In that event the statute provides a saving clause designed to protect the defendant's right by mandating transfer of the suit to the county of his residence upon his application. Thus the defendant's valuable and substantial right is protected, first, by the statutory command that suit be brought in the county where he might be found or where the cause occurs or accrues, but if mistakenly sued elsewhere, provision is made for transfer. To hold otherwise would overlook a salient rule of construction that all parts of a statute are to be considered together and given effect if possible. Mississippi Public Service Comm'n. v. City of Jackson, 328 So.2d 656 (Miss.1976), and McCaffrey's Food Market, Inc. v. Mississippi Milk Comm'n, 227 So.2d 459 (Miss.1969), wherein we stated:
. it is also a rule of law that in its effort to construe a statute the courts must seek to ascertain the legislative intent of the statute in question as a whole, taking in consideration each provision of the statute on the entire subject. .
(227 So.2d at 463)
It is also the duty of a court to support a construction which would purge the legislative purpose of any invalidity, absurdity or unjust inequality. Quitman County v. Turner, 196 Miss. 746, 18 So.2d 122 (1944), and the cases cited therein. We do not think the legislature intended by Section 11-11-3 to authorize a plaintiff in a suit not local to bring it in any county court within the borders of the state conditioned upon the defendant's failure to respond to process for venue. To do so would permit a mischievous result of great inconvenience and expense to citizen defendants. In Bryant, supra, we stated:
Permission to plaintiffs to select the situs of personal actions, not local, would often work great hardship and disadvantage to defendants. Conceivably the suit might be filed in this state three hundred miles from the county of the residence of such a defendant, necessitating large outlay of money for travel and other expenses, to defend the suit with resulting inability of such defendant to procure attendance of witnesses at the trial.
(231 Miss. at 742, 97 So.2d at 731)
We conclude the words of the statute, "venue shall be changed, on his application, before the jury is impaneled, to the county of his household and residence," have no application in the absence of bona fide and reasonable effort by a plaintiff to file his suit in the county where a defendant or one of them may be found or in the county where the cause of action may occur or accrue. This conclusion also has application to Section 11-11-17, the general statute on venue, since it must be read in pari materia with Section 11-11-3, the more specific statute.
The judgment of the circuit court is reversed and the judgment of the county court dismissing the default judgment is reinstated.
The cause was considered by a conference of the justices en banc.
REVERSED; THE COUNTY COURT JUDGMENT DISMISSING THE DEFAULT JUDGMENT IS REINSTATED.
INZER and SMITH, P. JJ., and ROBERTSON, WALKER, LEE and BOWLING, JJ., concur.
SUGG and BROOM, JJ., dissent.