Court Opinion

ID: 9851654
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:16:55.613648+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:10.654075
License: Public Domain

Felton, J.,
dissenting. I am of the opinion that the act of 1937, pp. 732-734, construed as a whole, refers to nonresidents as of the time an action is filed and not as of the time an accident occurs. The majority base their conclusion on that part of the act contained in Code (Ann. Supp.) § 68-803. That part of the act simply fixes the venue of actions against nonresidents. I think the first part of the act (Code, Ann. Supp., § 68-801), providing for service, contemplates only those who are nonresidents at the time of the filing of an action, because the sole purpose of the act is to provide for actions against and substituted service upon nonresidents, and the service must of necessity follow the cause of action. I cannot agree that the legislature intended to violate our Constitution by providing that a person who had become a resident of Georgia in good faith could be sued outside the county of his residence on a cause of action which occurred when he was a nonresident. Such an act as the one here involved is not necessary to give jurisdiction of a person who has become a resident of Georgia. The petition failed to allege that the defendant was a nonresident of Georgia at the time the suit was filed.