Loach v. Southeastern Greyhound Lines Inc

• Decision Date: 20 September 1934
• Docket Number: No. 23799.,23799.
• Citation: 49 Ga.App. 662,176 S.E. 518
• Parties: DE LOACH. v. SOUTHEASTERN GREYHOUND LINES, Inc.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

49 Ga.App. 662

176 S.E. 518

DE LOACH.

v.SOUTHEASTERN GREYHOUND LINES, Inc.

No. 23799.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

Sept. 20, 1934.

Syllabus by the Court.

A foreign corporation, which is not a railroad company or an electric company, but is a motorbus carrier, transacting its business within this state, and having an office and place for the transaction of its business and officers and agents in charge of its business in a particular county in this slate, is subject to be sued in that county, notwithstanding the cause of action may have originated in another county in this state.

Error from City Court of Atlanta; Hugh M. Dorsey, Judge.

Suit by Mary Lou De Loach against the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, Inc. To review a judgment dismissing the petition, plaintiff brings error.

Judgment reversed.

Miss Mary Lou De Loach instituted suit in the city court of Atlanta against the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, Inc., to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have been received by her in Clayton county, Ga., while a passenger in a bus operated by the defendant, alleged to have been due to its running into an embankment as a result of the defendant's negligent operation of the bus at a high rate of speed with defective steering apparatus and defective brakes. The petition alleged that the defendant was a corporation having an office and place of business in the county of Fulton, and officers and agents in charge of its business in that county, and that the defendant was subject to the Jurisdiction of the court. The petition as amended alleged that the acts causing the injuries complained of took place in Clayton county, Ga., and that the defendant was a foreign corporation. A demurrer to the petition as amended, upon the ground that it appeared upon its face that the court in which the suit was filed did not have jurisdiction thereof, was sustained and the petition dismissed. The plaintiff excepted.

Q. N. Bynum, of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Haas, Gambrell & Gardner, of Atlanta, for defendant in error.

STEPHENS, Judge (after stating the foregoing facts).

A foreign corporation, except as otherwise prescribed by statute, is subject to suit upon any cause of action, whether originating in this state or otherwise, in any county in this state in which it may do business and can beserved. Civ. Code 1910, §§ 2258, 5531. City Fire Insurance Co. v. Carrugi, 41 Ga.660; Williams v. East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia By. Co., 90 Ga. 519, 16 S. E. 303; Reeves v. Southern Railway Co., 121 Ga. 561, 49 S. E. 674, 70 L R. A. 51:;. 2 Ann. Cas. 207; Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway Co. v. Pless & Slade, 3 Ga. App. 400 (2a), 60 S. E. 8. Section 2798, as amended by Laws 1912, p. 66, which provides that "all railroad and electric companies shall be sued in the county in which the cause of action originated, by any one whose person or property has been injured by such railroad or electric company, " including foreign corporations doing business in this state as was held in Devereux v. Atlanta R. Co., 111 Ga. 855, 36 S. E. 939, and Coakley v. Southern Railway Co., 120 Ga. 960, 48 S. E. 372, does not, by its terms, apply to motor carriers...