Court Opinion

ID: 9579638
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:57:00.167201+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:38.641590
License: Public Domain

On Motion rob Rehearing.
Frankum, Judge.
In his motion for a rehearing plaintiff in error contends that this court overlooked his contention that defendant’s consent to service of process filed under Section 14 of the Georgia Security Law of 1920 (Ga. L. 1920, pp. 250, 258-60), which designated the Secretary of State of Georgia as the defendant’s true and lawful attorney for service of process, which contained no restrictive language as to the type or nature of actions which might be brought against defendant, was an irrevocable power of attorney under the provisions of the said act and that the service had in this case was valid under that consent, even though it might not have been valid under the consent filed pursuant to the 1957 act. This contention is without merit. The latter act expressly repealed the former one. Conceding for the moment that the consent to service filed under the former act would have been broad enough to encompass service made in the present action, the repeal of the statute under which it was filed rendered that consent void and of no effect thereafter. This is true because the repeal of a statute without reservation takes away all remedies given by it and even defeats all actions and proceedings pending under it at the time of its repeal, and this is especially so where the statute repealed is one creating a cause of action. 82 CJS 1012, Statutes, § 439a. Western Union Tel. Co. v. Lumpkin, 99 Ga. 647 (26 SE 74); Fulton County v. Spratlin, 210 Ga. 447 (1) (80 SE2d 780); Fulton Bag &c. Mills v. Williams, 212 Ga. 783 (3) (95 SE2d 848). Here the cause of action, if any the plaintiff has, did not even arise until long after the repeal of the former law and the enactment of the superseding statute. Certainly, as to any cause arising after the repeal of the former law, the consent to service filed thereunder is a nullity.

Rehearing denied.

Nichols, P. J., and Jordan, J., concur.