Marilyn Summerlin filed a wrongful death action against the Georgia Pines Community Service Board in the Thomas County Superior Court under the Georgia Tort Claims Act.1 According to Ms. Summerlin, her eighteen-year-old son died unexpectedly at Georgia Pines, a residential facility for the care and treatment of individuals with mental illness, mental retardation, and addiction operated by the Board.2 The Board moved for summary judgment on the ground that service of process was defective because the summons and complaint were not handed directly to Robert Henry Jones, Jr., the Director of Georgia Pines. Instead, sheriff’s deputies handed the summons and complaint to Connie Brogdon, the personnel manager at Georgia Pines, to give to Jones. The Superior Court held that service was improper under the service provision of the Georgia Tort Claims Act, OCGA § 50-21-35. The Court of Appeals reversed,3 holding that service was proper under the service provision of the Civil Practice Act4 applicable to service of process on a “public body,” OCGA § 9-11-4 e 5.5 We granted certiorari to determine whether OCGA § 9-11-4 e 5 applies to proceedings brought under the Georgia Tort Claims Act or whether OCGA § 50-21-35 instead provides the exclusive method for service of process on a State entity.6 We have concluded that OCGA § 9-11-4 e 5 applies to claims brought under the Georgia Tort Claims Act and, additionally, that the Court of Appeals correctly held that the Board waived any defense based on defective service of process. We therefore affirm the Court of Appeals’ judgment.
1. The Board contends that OCGA § 50-21-35 required Ms. Summerlin to have the summons and complaint handed to Jones personally in order to perfect service of process on the Board. The Board rests its argument on the following portion of OCGA § 50-21-35: In all civil actions brought against the state under the Georgia Tort Claims Act, to perfect service of process the plaintiff must both: 1 cause process to be served upon the chief executive officer of the state government entity involved at his or her usual office address; and 2 cause process to be served upon the director of the Risk Management Division of the Department of Administrative Services at his or her usual office address. According to the Board, the statutory text specifies not only who must be served i.e., the CEO of the agency sued and the director of the Risk Management Division and where at their usual office address, but also how by personally handing the summons and complaint to the two designated individuals. This reading would add an element to the statute the General Assembly elected not to include.
