Evans Cabinet Corporation sued Kitchen International, Inc. for breach of contract and unjust enrichment in the Superior Court of Laurens County. After Kitchen failed to file a responsive pleading, the court below entered a default judgment against it in the amount of $284,378.81, plus interest and costs. Kitchen now appeals from this judgment, contending that it was never properly served with process and that the court below erred when it awarded damages and interest without an evidentiary hearing. We see no error in the finding of the court below that Kitchen was served with process. We conclude, however, that the court could not properly award damages and pre-judgment interest to Evans without an evidentiary hearing, so we vacate the judgment below and remand for the court to conduct such a hearing. Evans, a Georgia corporation, is a manufacturer and wholesaler of custom cabinetry. Kitchen is a distributor and supplier of cabinetry, which it often supplies for use in construction projects throughout the United States. In its complaint, Evans alleged that it entered into a contract with Kitchen whereby Evans would manufacture cabinetry and other materials for Kitchen to supply for use in residential construction projects, that Evans manufactured and delivered the cabinetry and materials as the contract required, and that Kitchen failed to pay Evans for these items.1 Evans sought damages in the amount of $284,378.81, as well as interest. Evans did not, however, attach a copy of the contract or any invoices or other documents establishing the amount it was owed, nor did it allege specifically that the damages it sought were fixed by the terms of the contract or how the damages properly should be calculated.
Although Kitchen appears to maintain its principal place of business in Montreal, Canada, it is a Louisiana corporation and has registered an agent for service of process in Louisiana. It apparently has not registered, however, to do business in Georgia, and it has no registered agent here. Accordingly, after Evans filed suit in Laurens County, it endeavored to serve process upon Kitchen under the so-called “Long-Arm” statute, OCGA § 9-10-90, et seq.2 To that end, Evans obtained the appointment of a special process server to serve Kitchen’s registered agent in Louisiana. On October 19, 2009, Evans filed an affidavit of attempted service by the appointed special process server, in which the process server attested that, when he attempted service on Kitchen’s registered agent in Louisiana, he discovered that the address registered with the Louisiana Secretary of State was only a post office box. The process server represented that he had been unable to serve Kitchen through its registered agent or “through any other agent of the company.”
