§ 9-6-63.Service of writ and process

Once a quo warranto case starts, someone has to be told about it, and this section spells out how. It defines “personal service” for these proceedings as placing a copy of the writ and process directly in the defendant’s hands, and it makes that method the required way to serve a quo warranto defendant.

Subsection (c) handles a practical wrinkle: what if the defendant is a Georgia resident, but is temporarily living or staying outside the state when the case is filed? Rather than stall the proceeding, the section allows service through the publication method or the out-of-state personal service method described in O.C.G.A. § 9-11-4. A defendant reached that way is bound by the final decision exactly as if served in person inside Georgia.

The result is a service scheme that insists on hand delivery whenever possible, but does not let a defendant’s temporary absence from the state stall a dispute over public office. Because quo warranto often turns on who is running an office right now, the statute avoids building in a service loophole that a traveling officeholder could exploit.