Opinion ID: 1821157
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: whether the action should have been brought in the bessemer division

Text: Finally, Alabama Mobile Homes argues that the plaintiff should have brought its action in the Bessemer Division of the Jefferson County Circuit Court. Alabama Mobile Homes does business in Bessemer and the collateral was kept in Bessemer before it was sold. The threshold determination with regard to whether an action should be brought in the Bessemer Division or the Birmingham Division is to determine whether the action should be brought in Jefferson County. The venue statute provides that a domestic corporation may be sued in any county in which it does business or was doing business at the time the action arose. Section 6-3-7, Code of Alabama 1975. The principal place of business of the defendant in this case is Jefferson County. Therefore, the action was properly brought in that county. Since this case was properly brought in Jefferson County, we must determine which of the two divisions the case should have been filed in. An action must be brought in Bessemer if it arises within the territorial boundaries of the Bessemer Cutoff. Local Act No. 213, § 2, p. 62, Ala. Acts 1919. All suits maintainable in Jefferson County which do not arise in Bessemer should be brought in the Birmingham Division. Ex parte Central of Georgia Ry. Co., 243 Ala. 508, 512, 10 So.2d 746, 750 (1942). See Cleveland, Territorial Jurisdiction of the Circuit Court in the Bessemer Cutoff, Vol. 3, No. 2, Birmingham Bar Ass'n Bull. (Summer 1982). For purposes of determining which division a case should be filed in, an action on a promissory note is said to arise where the note is payable and where default in payment occurs. Metrobank v. Real Coal Co., 374 So.2d 296, 297 (Ala.1979); Seaboard Surety Co. v. William R. Phillips & Co., 279 Ala. 510, 187 So.2d 264, 267 (1966). The performance of the obligations under this note was due in Georgia. Since the action was maintainable in Jefferson County and it did not arise in Bessemer, it was properly brought in the Birmingham Division. Defendant's petition for the writ of mandamus is due to be denied. WRIT DENIED. TORBERT, C.J., and ALMON, EMBRY and ADAMS, JJ., concur.