117 Ga. App. 174 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1968
The plaintiff sued the defendant, a nonresident of Georgia, for damages allegedly resulting from the negligence of the defendant in operating a trailer. The allegations
1. Lack of jurisdiction over the person can be raised by a motion to dismiss. Code Ann. § 81A-112 (b).
2. The plaintiff contends that a trailer, standing unhitched and some distance from an automobile is a “motor vehicle” within the meaning of the Nonresident Motorists Act. Code Ann. § 68-801. We disagree. The Act relates to “The operation . . . of a motor vehicle.” It is elementary that this Act must be strictly construed. Cabe v. Edwards, 107 Ga. App. 551 (130 SE2d 803). In the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways (Ga. L. 1953, Nov. Sess., pp. 556, 557; Code Ann. § 68-1502), “motor vehicles” are “self-propelled” whereas “trailers” are vehicles “with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle.” See also Code Ann. § 68-101. The term “motor vehicle” as used in the Georgia Nonresident Motorists Act does not include a trailer without motive power not hitched to or being drawn by a motor vehicle. 8 AmJur2d 418, § 862; 48 ALR2d 1284-1285.
Judgment reversed.