Marlin Leasing Corporation “Marlin” obtained a default judgment against Cherwood, Inc. d/b/a Pak Mail “Pak Mail” and Norman Woodward Fowler in the Superior Court of New Jersey. Marlin then filed an authenticated copy of the New Jersey judgement in the Superior Court of Cobb County with the intent of enforcing the judgment under authority of the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Law the “Uniform Act”.1 Following our grant of its application for discretionary appeal,2 Pak Mail appeals the trial court’s order denying its motion to set aside the judgment. We reverse because venue for filing the judgment was not proper in the Superior Court of Cobb County. “A trial court’s ruling on a motion to set aside a judgment will be affirmed if there is any evidence to support it.”3 For our purposes, the only relevant evidence is Fowler’s affidavit filed in support of the motion to set aside, and the uncontested representations made at the hearing on that motion, showing that Pak Mail’s registered office was in Henry County. Based on the foregoing, Pak Mail objected to venue in the Superior Court of Cobb County, but the trial court reluctantly held that Pak Mail could not show venue was improper because the Uniform Act has no venue provision.
The Uniform Act provides that “a copy of any foreign judgment authenticated in accordance with an act of Congress or statutes of this state may be filed in the office of the clerk of any court of competent jurisdiction of this state.”4 Although the Uniform Act does not specifically provide for the proper venue for the filing of a foreign judgment, the Georgia Constitution contains a generally applicable rule as to venue: “All other civil cases, . . . shall be tried in the county where the defendant resides; venue as to corporations, foreign and domestic, shall be as provided by law . . . .”5 The question, one of first impression, is whether the general venue provision of the Georgia Constitution applies to a filing under the Uniform Act.
