After suffering an injury while on a work detail at the Coweta County Fairgrounds, inmate David Lamar Camp brought suit in the Coweta County Superior Court against the Georgia Department of Corrections, Coweta County, and other parties. The superior court dismissed the suit because Camp failed to mail a copy of the complaint to the Attorney General, as required by OCGA § 50-21-35. The Court of Appeals affirmed.1 We granted certiorari in this case to determine whether compliance with that requirement is essential to perfecting service and whether an initial failure to comply can be cured by a late mailing and the filing of an amended complaint. Because the statute clearly differentiates between the mailing requirement and the requirements for service of process, we hold that mailing a copy of the complaint to the Attorney General is not necessary to perfect service. Also, because no statutory authority prohibits a late mailing or the filing of an amended complaint, we hold that a plaintiff should be allowed to cure a defect in his compliance with the mailing requirement so long as the delay in providing a copy of the complaint to the Attorney General has not caused prejudice to the State.
As part of the Georgia Tort Claims Act GTCA, OCGA § 50-21-35 imposes a number of requirements upon litigants who sue the State and its agencies. Specifically, OCGA § 50-21-35 states: In all civil actions brought against the state under this article, 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 address. The time for the state to file an answer shall not begin until process has been served upon all required persons. A copy of the complaint, showing the date of filing, shall also be mailed to the Attorney General at his or her usual office address, by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery, return receipt requested and there shall be attached to the complaint a certificate that this requirement has been met. 1. A plain reading of the statute shows that the legislature intended to require the plaintiff to accomplish tasks related to two categories of persons. The first category of person, those upon whom process must be served, are covered in the first two sentences. The chief executive officer of the government entity involved, as well as the director of the Risk Management Division of the Department of Administrative Services, must be served with process, and the State’s duty to respond is not triggered until that is accomplished. When the statute is properly strictly construed, it is apparent that the legislature intended to require the plaintiff to serve process only on these two people.
