The sole issue for resolution in this case is whether the Superior Court of Columbia County had personal jurisdiction over appellant Susan Skaliy that permitted the court to impose equitable relief upon her. We conclude that it did not and vacate the equitable relief imposed on appellant and remand the case to the trial court with direction that it transfer the case to a court with proper jurisdiction.
In April 2009, appellee Glenda Metts filed suit in Columbia County against appellant Susan Skaliy, a resident of Fulton County, and appellee Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, a foreign corporation with a registered agent in Fulton County. Great-West had issued a policy of life insurance some years earlier on the life of James Metts, the husband of Glenda Metts and the father of Susan Skaliy, and had paid the insurance proceeds to Mrs. Skaliy, the named beneficiary of the policy, in September 2007, three months after the death of the insured. Mrs. Metts sought monetary damages from Great-West for its alleged negligence and its alleged breach of a fiduciary duty owed to her and to her late husband, and sought an accounting from Mrs. Skaliy and imposition of a constructive trust and injunctive relief prohibiting Mrs. Skaliy from spending or encumbering the proceeds of the life insurance policy. In both her answer and in a motion to dismiss, Mrs. Skaliy asserted the trial court lacked personal jurisdiction over her and that venue was not proper in Columbia County, citing the Georgia constitutional provision that “equity cases shall be tried in the county where a defendant resides against whom substantial relief is prayed.” Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VI, Sec. II, Par. III. Mrs. Metts then amended her complaint to seek from Great-West equitable relief, i.e., reformation of the insurance contract between Great-West and her late husband in which Mrs. Skaliy was designated as the policy’s beneficiary. Asserting that jurisdiction and venue in Columbia County were proper with regard to Great-West, Mrs. Metts asserted that the existence of intertwined equitable claims against both defendants made venue in Columbia County proper with regard to Mrs. Skaliy. The trial court entered the injunctive relief without addressing the issue of its jurisdiction over Mrs. Skaliy and whether venue was proper in Columbia County. Mrs. Skaliy appeals, contending the trial court lacked personal jurisdiction to enter an injunction against her.
