Southern Electronics Distrib. v. Anderson

Southern Electronics Distrib. v. Anderson, 232 Ga. App. 648, 648 (1) (502 SE2d 257) (1998) was a lawsuit on a guaranty against Anderson, a resident of Alabama and a principal in an Alabama corporation. In his capacity as a corporate principal, Anderson had executed, on behalf of the corporation, two separate credit agreements with Southern Electronics, a Georgia entity. In connection with the first credit agreement, Anderson also executed a personal guaranty. After the Alabama corporation went bankrupt, Southern Electronics sued Anderson in Georgia. The trial court granted Anderson's motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, and this Court affirmed. In so doing, the Court relied on the then-current rule that "telephone and mail contact by an out-of-state defendant with a Georgia resident do not, alone," constitute the requisite minimum contacts for the exercise of long-arm jurisdiction. 232 Ga. App. at 650 (1). Because the vast majority of Anderson's contacts with Southern Electronics had been by telephone and the United States Mail, we concluded that he did not have sufficient minimum contacts with Georgia to satisfy the first prong of the jurisdictional test. Id. The Court further noted that although Anderson had made two visits to Southern Electronics' Georgia offices, he did so in his capacity as a principal of the corporation and that there was "nothing to indicate any other act by Anderson to avail himself personally of the law of Georgia." Id.