Where you file a separate maintenance action is not decided by the rule you may have heard for divorce cases.
Divorce Venue Rules Do Not Apply
In Ward v. Ward, 223 Ga. 868 (1968), a husband argued that “the jurisdictional rules as to divorce apply to actions for permanent alimony where no divorce is prayed,” which would have required his wife to sue in the county where she lived.
The Georgia Supreme Court rejected that. Looking at the constitutional provision fixing venue in domestic cases, the Court observed that it “refers only to ‘divorce cases’ with no mention of alimony matters.” Divorce was deliberately “put in a class separate and distinct from all other suits.”
So the county where the defendant can be served is where the case belongs. Ward upheld a Fulton County filing against a nonresident husband served while passing through Fulton County, quoting an older decision that a wife’s claim “will lie against him if found and served in the county of Chatham.”
When Property Is the Only Target
There is an important exception when your spouse cannot be served personally at all.
Davis v. Davis, 213 Ga. 581 (1957), involved a wife in Fulton County suing a husband who lived in New York, seeking his Stephens County real estate as permanent alimony and asking to serve him by publication. She filed in Fulton County, and the case was dismissed.
The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed. “[W]here the sole relief prayed by a wife is for the award of the property of her husband, a nonresident of this State, as permanent alimony, the action must be brought in the county where the res is located.”
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!