Court Opinion

ID: 9576530
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:25:34.597675+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:08:21.023999
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
As I understand it, we are holding that when a foreign corporation maintains a registered agent for service of process in this state, the foreign corporation cannot be served by service on that registered agent in the corporation’s home state (where the agent also has an office) pursuant to OCGA § 9-11-4 (e) (1) (C), which in part provides: “When service by publication is ordered, personal service of a copy of the summons, complaint, and order of publication outside the state in lieu of publication shall be equivalent to serving notice by publication and to mailing when proved to the satisfaction of the judge or otherwise.” Here the plaintiff had obtained a clerk’s order for publication at the same time suit was filed on November 2,1979. Presumably this was on the basis that OCGA § 9-11-4 (e) (1) (A) allows service by publication “[w]hen the person on whom service is to be made resides outside the state, . . . .” and that the proviso in that section regarding the present address of the defendant being unknown does not apply. Also, he had in fact obtained service on that agent in defendant’s home state (and actually the same city as defendant’s plant) on November 7, just five days after suit was filed. The record demonstrates that the steps set out in OCGA § 9-11-4 (a) (A) and (C) were taken, except there is nothing to show that the registered agent appointed for service in Georgia was also appointed by defendant as its regis*359tered agent for service in Wisconsin. That impediment aside, and assuming that obtaining the order for publication after foreign service has been made meets the Code’s requirements, our holding is that such method of service is not available for non-resident corporations who maintain a registered office in this state.
Decided December 5, 1985
Rehearing denied December 18, 1985
Richard D. Phillips, for appellant.
Stevan A. Miller, Theodore E. G. Pound, Randall H. Davis, for appellees.