Court Opinion

ID: 9576475
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:24:59.193038+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:08:35.745511
License: Public Domain

Smith, Justice,
dissenting.
The distinction in treatment occurring after the Secretary of *552State acknowledges service could only be based upon the previous distinction. The Secretary of State sends a copy of the complaint to the only address that a domestic corporation has filed, even though a previous attempt to serve the registered agent at that address has failed. He sends a copy of the complaint to a foreign corporation’s principal office in its home state presumably because no notice has yet been sent to that address, and because a previous attempt to serve the registered agent at the registered address in Georgia has failed. Though the initial distinction could be based upon interest in efficiency, this distinction, stemming from the initial distinction, requires a futile and wasteful action on behalf of the Secretary of State. The scheme providing for service of process on corporations, thus, when seen as a whole, discriminates against domestic corporations in a manner that ultimately cannot be rationally related to any legitimate state interest. The distinction in the Secretary of State’s actions after he acknowledges service violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 312 (96 SC 2562, 49 LE2d 520) (1976). The trial court thus erred in failing to set aside the default judgment involved in this case.
Decided March 20, 1986 —
Reconsideration denied April 1, 1986.
Cox & Richard, Dale C. Ray, Jr., Martin G. Cox, for appellant.
Charles W. Boyle, for appellee.
In any event, foreign corporations will not be attracted to Georgia because of the shoddy way with which domestic corporate defendants may be treated. The majority^ bases its rationalization upon the way foreign corporations are treated, not the distinction in the way that the two types of corporations are treated. The majority answers the wrong question because it has no answer for the correct question. Another way to describe the majority opinion lies in the South Georgia expression, “It’s weak as pond water.”
I respectfully dissent.