On April 15, 1998, Oris Joseph Reed, a school bus driver for the Vidalia School District, in operating his bus in Vidalia, Toombs County, caused Joyce Foskey to skid into a curb. On August 13, 1999, Foskey sued Reed in Montgomery County Superior Court, the county of his residence, and a non-legal entity the Vidalia City Schools.
The defendants answered, raising official immunity, the lack of legal entity of the employer, and service as defenses. Foskey had sought to serve the Vidalia City Schools by making constructive service upon Reed as its agent; the Vidalia City School District, the correct legal entity, raised service defenses and issues as to the wrong party having been sued. Foskey amended her complaint as a misnomer to name the Vidalia City School Board as the employer-defendant, and the employer again answered, raising service as a defense and denying that it was a corporate entity, and it pled again that the Vidalia City School District was the correct legal entity. On January 19, 2000, Foskey had Mayor Ronnie Dixon of the City of Vidalia served for the Vidalia City School Board. On October 4, 2000, Foskey amended the complaint yet again to correct an alleged misnomer to finally name the Vidalia City School District as defendant. On November 27, 2000, the Montgomery County Superior Court entered an order dismissing Reed, based on official immunity, and transferred the case against the Vidalia City School District to Toombs County Superior Court. On February 27, 2002, the Superior Court of Toombs County entered an order dismissing the complaint against the Vidalia City School District, because the defendant had never been substituted as a new party by court order and served within the statute of limitations. Finding no merit to the appeal from this order, we affirm.
