Opinion
44545.
DECIDED JANUARY 8, 1970.
Action for damages. Bibb State Court. Before Judge Phillips.
Smith, Cohen, Ringel, Kohler, Martin Lowe, Sam F. Lowe, Jr., Robert W. Beynart, Jones, Cork, Miller Benton, Edward L. Benton, for appellant.
Adams, O'Neal, Steele, Thornton, Hemingway McKenney, Hardy Gregory, Jr., Robert S. Slocumb, for appellee.
Certiorari having been granted by the Supreme Court to our judgment in O'Neal Steel, Inc. v. Smith, 120 Ga. App. 106 ( 169 S.E.2d 827), and that court having remanded the case to us for disposition in compliance with a ruling made by it in Bauer International Corp. v. Cagles, Inc., 225 Ga. 684 ( 171 S.E.2d 314), our judgment of July 1, 1969, is hereby vacated. But nevertheless the judgment of the trial court is reversed in accord with the holding in Bauer that the word "nonresident" as used in the "Long Arm Statute" (Ga. L. 1966, p. 343) did not, prior to April 12, 1968, the effective date of the amendment of 1968 (Ga. L. 1968, pp. 1419, 1420; Code Ann. § 24-117), authorize service thereunder upon corporations, for that the amendment, by its own terms is not to be given retrospective effect. See also Buckhead Doctors' Bldg., Inc. v. Oxford Finance Companies, Inc., 120 Ga. App. 516 ( 171 S.E.2d 365). It appears that if there is a cause of action here it arose about November 3, 1966, and that this suit is against a corporation. Consequently, defendant's attack upon the service of process under the "Long Arm Statute" and upon the jurisdiction of the court should have been sustained.
See and compare Columbia Nitrogen Corp. v. Struthers Well Corp. (S.D. Ga. Dec. 1969) F. Supp.
Judgment reversed. Bell, C. J., and Deen, J., concur.