Gold v. Pioneer Fund, Inc.
Gold v. Pioneer Fund, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
Henry Gold brought an action of trover against Pioneer Fund, Inc. to recover from the defendant two described certificates representing 174 shares of common stock of the defendant corporation of the alleged value of $3,921.96, to which the plaintiff claimed title or a valuable interest therein. The defendant being a nonresident corporation, substituted service was had by service of process on the Secretary of State pursuant to a “Consent to Service” filed with the Secretary of State
Two questions are presented by the assignment of error. First, is the scope of the “Consent to Service” filed by the defendant with the Secretary of State as Commissioner of Securities under Section 10 of the Georgia Securities Act of 1957 sufficiently broad to encompass a trover action to recover possession of shares of stock issued by the defendant and allegedly converted by the defendant? Secondly, if service of process in a trover action under the aforesaid consent was not sufficient to make the defendant subject to the jurisdiction of the trial court, was such service nevertheless sufficient under the provisions of the general corporation act, Code Ann. § 22-1507, on the theory that the defendant, a nonresident foreign corporation, was “doing business” in Georgia?
The answer to the first question depends upon a consideration of the purpose for which the defendant’s consent to service
Upon careful consideration of the act it is clear that its sole purpose is to protect investors in securities against fraud and misrepresentation by issuers and by sellers as to the value and soundness of the securities and to prevent the sale of worthless or unsound securities on the open market in this State. The act specifically provides that the consent to service shall be effective for “actions arising out of or founded upon the sale of any
This ruling'is in accord with the ruling made by the Supreme Court of Minnesota in Boyum v. Massachusetts Investors Trust, 215 Minn. 485 (10 NW2d 379). There the suit was for the conversion by the defendant of three trust certificates, substantially the same as the action in this case. While the court held that the defendant was not doing business in Minnesota, the final rationale of the decision did not, in reality, turn upon that facet of the case at all, but upon the court’s interpretation of the scope of the consent to service filed by the nonresident defendant with the Minnesota Commissioner of Securities. The court, in interpreting the act, determined that the purpose of the act was to protect the public against fraud in the sale of securities, and that an action to recover for the wrongful conversion of the securities did not arise out of any duty impliedly arising under the contract of sale or under the provisions of the Minnesota Blue Sky Law, but was a right of action created by other provisions of law, and that therefore the consent to service given under the act was not broad enough to encompass consent to service of process in an action for conversion of the securities. This case is not distinguishable on its facts from that case, and while we are not bound by that ruling, it is persuasive authority that the ruling which we have made is correct. See 13 Am. Jur. 442, Corporations, § 376.
The defendant, Pioneer Fund, Inc., is an investment company incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware and having its sole office and place of doing business (except for its
It follows that the trial judge did not err in sustaining the defendant’s plea to the jurisdiction, and in vacating the service of process.
070rehearing
On Motion rob Rehearing.
In his motion for a rehearing plaintiff in error contends that this court overlooked his contention that defendant’s consent to service of process filed under Section 14 of the Georgia Security Law of 1920 (Ga. L. 1920, pp. 250, 258-60), which designated the Secretary of State of Georgia as the defendant’s true and lawful attorney for service of process, which contained no restrictive language as to the type or nature of actions which might be brought against defendant, was an irrevocable power of attorney under the provisions of the said act and that the service had in this case was valid under that consent, even though it might not have been valid under the consent filed pursuant to the 1957 act. This contention is without merit. The latter act expressly repealed the former one. Conceding for the moment that the consent to service filed under the former act would have been broad enough to encompass service made in the present action, the repeal of the statute under which it was filed rendered that consent void and of no effect thereafter. This is true because the repeal of a statute without reservation takes away all remedies given by it and even defeats all actions and proceedings pending under it at the time of its repeal, and this is especially so where the statute repealed is one creating a cause of action. 82 CJS 1012, Statutes, § 439a. Western Union Tel. Co. v. Lumpkin, 99 Ga. 647 (26 SE 74); Fulton County v. Spratlin, 210 Ga. 447 (1) (80 SE2d 780); Fulton Bag &c. Mills v. Williams, 212 Ga. 783 (3) (95 SE2d 848). Here the cause of action, if any the plaintiff has, did not even arise until long after the repeal of the former law and the enactment of the superseding statute. Certainly, as to any cause arising after the repeal of the former law, the consent to service filed thereunder is a nullity.
Rehearing denied.
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