Court Opinion

ID: 9443205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:14:07.402866+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:24.533841
License: Public Domain

RUSSELL, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Claiming to be the owners of one-half of the corporate stock of Southland Chenille’s, Inc., a corporation of Walker County, Georgia, appellants sought to intervene in a voluntary bankruptcy proceeding which had been instituted by the corporation, allegedly at the instance of the other stockholder, who owned the remaining one-half of the corporate stock. The purpose of the intervention was to set aside the adjudication of the corporation as a bankrupt upon the ground that no proper authority had been given, or ground existed, for the filing of the petition in bankruptcy. Appellants’ claim of stock ownership was predicated upon the judgment of the Court of Ordinary of Walker County, Georgia, which awarded to appellants the corporate stock ownership of their deceased husband and father as a year’s support. Mrs. Seiden, her son, and her husband, in his lifetime, were all residents and citizens of Tennessee. Among other grounds, the corporation moved to dismiss the intervention upon the ground that the judgment of the Court of Ordinary of Walker County, Georgia was void because the situs of the stock was in the State of Tennessee and not within the jurisdiction of the Georgia Court. The trial judge approved this contention, determined the judgment awarding the year’s support void, and, since, consequently, the proposed intervenors were not stockholders and had no interest in the matter, dismissed the intervention. This appeal followed. As freely conceded and plainly stated by counsel for the appellants, “the only question presented by this appeal is whether or not Mrs. Seiden and her minor son owned one-half of the stock of Southland Chenille’s, Inc., by virtue of the judgment of the Walker [iCounty] Court of Ordinary setting it apart to them as a year’s support.”
It is, of course, well established that in Georgia a year’s support “is a favorite of the law”.1 It is “an anomaly and special favorite of [Georgia] legislation and jurisprudence * * * a branch of the statute of distributions”. Grant v. Sosebee, 169 Ga. 658, 661, 151 S.E. 336, 338, and citations. Nevertheless, it must be set aside out of the estate of the deceased husband. This estate is not, and was not, within the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy Court. It is the corporation which sought adjudication as a bankrupt and this, of course, is an entirely different matter from the estate of a deceased stockholder. Only the corporation was before the Court. Doubtless in recognition of its futility, the widow did not seek a year’s support from the assets of the corporation. She sought to use the property claimed to have been acquired through her husband’s estate as evidencing her rights as an interested person, a stockholder, to move to set aside the adjudication of the corporation as a bankrupt. Consequently, there is no necessity for determining the proper procedure to be followed where a year’s support is sought from a decedent’s estate which is being administered by a court of bankruptcy.
Turning, then, to the validity of the judgment of the Georgia Court of Ordinary, upon which the claim of interest of the appellant is based, the controlling question is whether the corporate stock interest of the deceased Tennessee stockholder was subject to the jurisdiction of the Georgia probate court in the proceeding instituted by the widow and minor son of such stockholder, themselves also residents of Tennessee. Non-residence alone does not prevent the award of a year’s support by the *906Georgia Court where the deceased leaves property located- in Georgia. Jones v. Cooner, 142 Ga. 127, 82 S.E. 445. However, under the provisions of an Act of the Georgia Legislature in 1947, Georgia Acts, 1947, p. 866, Supp.Code of 1933, Sec. 113-1002,1, it is provided that the appraisers essential to carry out the determination of amount of, or property from which, a year’s support shall be set aside under and by virtue of Section 113-1002 of the Georgia Code of 1933 “shall be residents of the county where the administration of the estate of the deceased is pending; or, if no administration, then from the county where the deceased resided at the time of his death.” Such appraisers shall have power to set aside a year’s support “either in property or money, and from property of the deceased whether located in the county or their appointment or in any other county of the State of Georgia”. Section 85-d701 of Code of Georgia defines corporate stock as personalty. The Georgia authorities recognize the general rule that “Personal property has no locality other than that of the person having the same in possession, ownership, custody or control”, Clark v. Baker, 186 Ga. 65, 77, 196 S.E. 750, 758, and is “subject to the law that governs the.person of the owner, both with respect to its disposition and transmission, either by succession or the act of the party.” Thomas v. Morrisett, 76 Ga. 384. See also Grote v. Pace, 71 Ga. 231; Squire v. Vazquez, 52 Ga.App. 215, 183 S.E. 127; Fenn v. Caste-lanna, 196 Ga. 22, 25 S.E.2d 796. It seems clear from these authorities that the Georgia law establishes the situs of corporate stock as the domicile of the owner, and accordingly, there was no property of the non-resident decedent within the State of Georgia and subject to the jurisdiction of its 'Courts for the purpose of setting the same aside to the widow and the minor child as a year’s support. The appraisers purported to act under authority of the Court of Ordinary of Walker County, Georgia, were not residents of the county either where the administration of the estate of the deceased was pending, or of the county where the deceased resided at the time of his death. There is no known provision in Georgia law which would authorize the Georgia Court to set aside to the widow resident of Tennessee a year’s support in property having a legal situs in Tennessee belonging to the estate of a deceased Tennessee resident. It being conceded upon the hearing that these circumstances existed, the judgment upon which the appellants relied was patently void for lack of jurisdiction in the Court of Ordinary and the trial Court did not err in so holding. It follows that the attempted intervenors failed to establish that they were stockholders in the corporation. They neither then claimed, nor now rely upon, any other basis of interest in the bankruptcy proceeding, and the trial Court did not err in dismissing tile intervention.

. Backer v. City Bank & Trust Co., 180 Ga. 672,180 S.E. 604, 605,108 A.L.R. 769.