Johnson v. Mayor &C. of Carrollton

288 S.E.2d 565, 249 Ga. 173, 1982 Ga. LEXIS 1122
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 11, 1982
Docket37839
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 288 S.E.2d 565 (Johnson v. Mayor &C. of Carrollton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Mayor &C. of Carrollton, 288 S.E.2d 565, 249 Ga. 173, 1982 Ga. LEXIS 1122 (Ga. 1982).

Opinions

Smith, Justice.

Appellant, James M. Johnson, appeals from the denial of his motion to set aside the judgment entered in an equitable interpleader action. For reasons which follow, we reverse.

On November 11, 1980, William Squires was involved in a shootout with police officers at a shopping center in Carrollton. Several police cars, several nearby privately owned vehicles, and some buildings in the shopping center suffered gunshot damage, and appellant, a police officer for the City of Carrollton, was seriously wounded. Squires, wounded himself during the exchange of gunfire, was arrested. Approximately $10,000 was discovered on his person. Additional money was recovered as a result of information later obtained from Squires. All together, the City of Carrollton held $14,201.

Sometime after November 11, the city received information that the money recovered from Squires might be the fruits of a bank robbery in Mississippi. The city, noting a possible claim by the Mississippi bank and the possibility of other and conflicting claims to the fund being held by it, brought an equitable interpleader action on November 26, 1980, and deposited the $14,201 with the court. See Code Ann. § 37-1503. The city asked that all claimants be required to file any claim they might have to the fund. Squires and the hospital in which he was a patient were both personally served.

Squires subsequently escaped. He was recaptured in Florida, where he is now serving time for offenses committed there. Squires never answered or filed any claim to the money. The hospital and three related groups, an orthopedic clinic, a radiological clinic, and an anaesthesia association, filed claims totalling $8,195.85 for medical treatment of Squires. The city claimed in excess of $6,000 for the repair of its police cars, attorney fees and investigative costs leading to Squires’ recapture.

On January 10, 1981, the city filed an additional pleading reciting the claims filed thus far with the court and admitting that it had “knowledge of the claim of [appellant] for damages as a result of [174]*174the gunshot wound ... inflicted ... by defendant Squires, which ... will... result in possible permanent injuries.” The city asked that a deadline be set for the filing of claims and that notice of the deadline be published twice a month for two months. See Code Ann. § 37-410.1 The court set March 23,1981 as the deadline and ordered that notice of the deadline be published as the city had requested.

On March 25,1981, a final judgment was filed directing the clerk of the court to pay $8,195.85 to the hospital, the two clinics and the anaesthesia association; to retain $76 for court costs; and to pay the remainder of the fund to the City of Carrollton. Appellant read an article about the disbursement in the next day’s paper. On March 31, 1981, he filed a motion to set aside, motion for new trial and motion to intervene, contending primarily that the provisions of Code Ann. § 37-410 violate due process.

It was shown at the hearing on appellant’s motions 1) that appellant’s whereabouts were known to the city; 2) that appellant was, at all times during the pendency of the interpleader proceedings, within the State of Georgia; 3) that appellant had personal knowledge of the pending action and the need to file a claim, but had no knowledge of the March 23 deadline; and 4) that the fund had already been disbursed, pursuant to the final judgment, when appellant first learned of the deadline by reading the article in the paper.

The trial court overruled appellant’s challenge to the constitutionality of Code Ann. § 37-410 and denied all of his motions, concluding that since the fund was already disbursed, the matter was moot.

1. In response to appellant’s constitutional challenge to Code Ann. § 37-410, the city asserts that the issue has already been decided by this court in Suttles v. J. B. Withers Cigar Co., 194 Ga. 617 (22 SE2d 129) (1942). In Division 4 of that opinion, this court stated: “Finally it is contended that the act violates par. 3 of sec. 1 of art. 1 of the constitution (Code § 2-103), which declares that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law, in that the intervenor was not named in the bar order, had no notice of it or of the advertisement, and has never had his day in court. The judgment barring him from his right to participate in the fund in court is a judgment in rem. Judgments of that character may be [175]*175provided on substitute service, such as service by publication, and do not on that account run afoul of the due-process clause.”

More recently, in Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank &c. Co., 339 U. S. 306, 312 (70 SC 652, 94 LE 865) (1950), the U. S. Supreme Court stated that “[w]ithout disparaging the usefulness of distinctions between actions in rem and those in personam in many branches of law, or on other issues, or the reasoning which underlies them, we do not rest the power of the State to resort to constructive service in this proceeding upon how its courts or this Court may regard this historical antithesis.” Rather, the Court held, regardless of the type of action, due process requires that a chosen method of service be reasonably certain to inform those affected. Where conditions do not permit such notice, the method chosen must not be substantially less likely to inform than other feasible and customary substitutes. Although the court noted the unreliability of notice by publication as a means of acquainting interested parties that their rights are before a court, it also recognized that, in cases of persons missing or unknown, service by publication might be all the situation permitted and lack of personal service would not constitutionally bar a final decree foreclosing the rights of such persons. However, “[e]xceptions in the name of necessity do not sweep away the rule that within the limits of practicability notice must be such as is reasonably calculated to reach interested parties.” Id. at 318.

Appellant in this case was a known claimant who was present in this state and whose whereabouts were known. Notice by publication was not reasonably calculated to apprise him of the pending action or of the deadline for filing a claim. His claim was barred by the judgment. We hold that Code Ann. § 37-410, insofar as it purports to allow termination of claims after service by publication on known claimants whose whereabouts are known and who are present within the state, violates due process. Suttles v. J. B. Withers Cigar Co., supra, to the extent that it holds to the contrary, is hereby overruled.

2. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60 (b)(4), “a judgment is not void merely because it is erroneous, but only if the court which rendered it lacked jurisdiction of the subject matter, or of the parties, or acted in a manner inconsistent with due process of law.” In re Four Seasons Securities Laws Litigation, 502 F2d 834, 842 (Tenth Cir. 1974). The term “void,” as used in CPA § 60 (Code Ann. § 81A-160), has been more broadly construed (see Canal Ins. Co. v. Cambron, 240 Ga 708 (242 SE2d 32) (1978); Wasden v. Rusco Industries, 233 Ga. 439 (211 SE2d 733) (1975)). Consistent with federal authority, we now hold that a judgment is void if the court which rendered it acted in a manner materially inconsistent with due process.

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Johnson v. Mayor &C. of Carrollton
288 S.E.2d 565 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1982)

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Bluebook (online)
288 S.E.2d 565, 249 Ga. 173, 1982 Ga. LEXIS 1122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-mayor-c-of-carrollton-ga-1982.