Service of Process; Venue

1. Law
2. Georgia Code
3. Corporations, Partnerships, and Associations
4. Limited Liability Companies
5. Miscellaneous
6. Service of Process; Venue

1. A limited liability company's registered agent is the limited liability company's agent for service of process, notice, or demand required or permitted by law to be served on the limited liability company.If a limited liability company has no registered agent or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, the limited liability company may be served by registered or certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested, addressed to the limited liability company at its principal office.Service is perfected under the immediately preceding sentence at the earliest of:
   1. The date the limited liability company receives the mail;
   2. The date shown on the return receipt, if signed on behalf of the limited liability company; or
   3. Five days after its deposit in the mail, as evidenced by the postmark, if mailed postage prepaid and correctly addressed.

      This subsection does not prescribe the only means, or necessarily the required means, of serving a limited liability company.

2. Venue in proceedings against a limited liability company or foreign limited liability company shall be determined in accordance with the pertinent constitutional and statutory provisions of this state in effect on March 1, 1994, or thereafter.For purposes of determining venue, the residence of a limited liability company or foreign limited liability company shall be determined in accordance with Code Section 14-2-510 as though such limited liability company or foreign limited liability company were a corporation.

(Code 1981, §14-11-1108, enacted by Ga. L. 1993, p. 123, § 1; Ga. L. 2000, p. 1589, § 3.)

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 2000, p. 1589, § 16, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that the amendment to this Code section is applicable with respect to notices delivered on or after July 1, 2000.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Foreign LLC's principal place of business was not LLC's registered office in Georgia.

- Under O.C.G.A. §§ 14-2-510(b)(4) and14-11-1108(b), venue for a Georgia corporation's suit against a foreign LLC lay in the county where the tort occurred, Thomas County; the provision allowing the LLC to transfer venue to the LLC's principal place of business did not apply because the statute permitted transfer only to a county in Georgia and the LLC's principal place of business was in Maryland as shown in the LLC's application for a certificate of authority under O.C.G.A. § 14-11-702(a)(6). Kingdom Retail Group, LLC v. Pandora Franchising, LLC, 334 Ga. App. 812, 780 S.E.2d 459 (2015), aff'd, 299 Ga. 723, 791 S.E.2d 786 (2016).

Motion for remand properly denied.

- Teenager's motion to remand was properly denied as: (1) a police officer was the only defendant who resided in Toombs County; (2) venue in Toombs County "vanished" when the officer was granted summary judgment, so the teenager could not rely on the joint tortfeasor venue provision of the Georgia Constitution; (3) the newspaper defendants did not have an office in Toombs County so as to preclude venue there pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 14-2-510(b)(3); (4) although the newspaper defendants transacted business in Toombs County, they did not maintain an office there; and (5) venue was not properly based on O.C.G.A. § 14-11-1108(b), even though some defendants were limited liability companies. Torrance v. Morris Publ'g Group, LLC, 281 Ga. App. 563, 636 S.E.2d 740 (2006), cert. denied, 2007 Ga. LEXIS 160 (Ga. 2007).

Cited in Pandora Franchising, LLC v. Kingdom Retail Group, LLLP, 299 Ga. 723, 791 S.E.2d 786 (2016).

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