This case came to us by way of certiorari from the Court of Appeals, and the facts of the case may be found in First United Bank of Mississippi v. First Nat. Bank of Atlanta, 175 Ga. App. 10 (332 SE2d 309) (1985). We granted certiorari in this case to answer the following question: "Whether the collection by an out-of-state bank, through normal banking channels, of a check drawn on a Georgia bank constitutes the transaction of business in Georgia so as to subject the out-of- state bank to the jurisdiction of the Georgia courts in a suit alleging that the check was paid on an improper endorsement?" Both J. C. Penney, supra, and Patron, supra, involved manufacturers that manufactured and shipped merchandise covered by indemnity/warranty agreements into Georgia for resale to Georgia consumers. One can readily find that based on their conduct, they "purposefully directed" their activities at residents of Georgia. The stream of commerce rationale that was first introduced in Gray v. American Radiator &c. Corp., 22 Ill2d 432 (176 NE2d 761) (1961), has been cited with approval most recently by the United States Supreme Court in Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, ---- U. S. ---- (105 SC 2174, 2182, ---- LE2d ----) (1985), where the court citing World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U. S. 286, 297 (100 SC 559, 567-568, 62 LE2d 490) (1980), stated that " '[t]he forum State does not exceed its powers under the Due Process Clause if it asserts personal jurisdiction over a corporation that delivers its products into the stream of commerce with the expectation that they will be purchased by consumers in the forum State' and those products subsequently injure forum consumers." (Emphasis supplied.) But it is stretching the concept beyond its rational meaning to apply it to an out-of-state bank that engages in routine and mechanical bank collection procedures. To allow the Court of Appeals decision to stand is to "appoint the [check] agent for service of process[,]" World-Wide Volkswagen Corp., supra, 444 U. S. at 296, and to ignore the " 'purposeful availment' requirement [that] ensures that a defendant will not be haled into a jurisdiction solely as a result of 'random,' 'fortuitous,' or 'attenuated' contacts, [cit.]" Burger King Corp., supra, 105 SC at 2183. In Davis Metals v. Allen, 230 Ga. 623, 625 ( 198 SE2d 285) (1973), this court announced the three-prong test we use in determining whether or not jurisdiction may be exerted over a nonresident pursuant to OCGA 9-10-91 (1). Jurisdiction "exists on the basis of transacting business in this state if [1] the nonresident defendant has purposefully done some act or consummated some transaction in this state, [2] if the cause of action arises from or is connected with such act or transaction, and [3] if the exercise of jurisdiction by the courts of this state does not offend traditional fairness and substantial justice." We have consistently held that our Long-Arm Statute confers jurisdiction over nonresidents to the maximum extent permitted by due process. Coe & Payne Co. v. Wood-Mosaic Corp., 230 Ga. 58 (195 SE2d 399) (1973). "The Due Process Clause protects an individual's liberty interest in not being subject to the binding judgments of a forum with which he has established no meaningful 'contacts, ties, or relations.' [Cit.] By requiring that individuals have 'fair warning that a particular activity may subject [them] to the jurisdiction of a foreign sovereign,' [cit.], the Due Process Clause 'gives a degree of predictability to the legal system that allows potential defendants to structure their primary conduct with some minimum assurance as to where that conduct will and will not render them liable to suit.' [Cit.] "Where a forum seeks to assert specific jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant who has not consented to suit there, this 'fair warning' requirement is satisfied if the defendant has 'purposefully directed' his activities at residents of the forum, [cit.], and the litigation results from alleged injuries that 'arise out of or relate to' those activities. [Cit.]" Burger King Corp., supra, 105 SC at 2181-82. The Court of Appeals found that the appellant "must be presumed to have acted with knowledge that payment would ultimately be made in Georgia, this being the location of the drawee bank." But this "presumed knowledge" or foreseeability is not that which is critical to a due process analysis. That foreseeability "is that the defendant's conduct and connection with the forum State are such that he should reasonably anticipate being haled into court there." World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, supra, 444 U. S. at 297. We now begin to look at the appellant's connection with Georgia and the appellant's conduct. The appellant is a corporation organized and incorporated under the laws of Mississippi. It is not organized or incorporated under the laws of Georgia and it is not registered or licensed to do business in Georgia. In an affidavit signed by Billy F. Wooten, Sr., Vice President and Cashier of the appellant, he states that the appellant: "(a) does not regularly do business in Georgia; (b) solicits no business in Georgia; (c) engages in no persistent conduct in Georgia; and (d) does not derive substantial revenue either from goods used or consumed in Georgia or from services rendered in Georgia." Further he states that the appellant "does not own, use or possess any real property in the State of Georgia." In September 1983, a customer of the appellant deposited a check drawn on a Georgia bank into his account with the appellant. The appellant paid and forwarded the check for collection to the Mississippi Bank in Jackson, Mississippi. All of the appellant's conduct occurred in Meridian, Mississippi, and it was the routine, mechanical conduct of a bank that accepts for deposit a check drawn on an out-of-state bank. The check which was drawn on a Georgia bank, by necessity, had to return to the Georgia bank after its circuitous odyssey that passed through the appellant. Although the appellant may have known that the check would return to Georgia it had absolutely no control over the final destination of the check. There was no method by which the appellant could have prevented the check from returning to its predetermined destination after it left Georgia, short of refusing to accept the check initially. We do not find that the appellant's act of forwarding the check for collection through normal banking channels in Meridian, Mississippi, amounted to it "purposefully direct[ing its] activities at residents of [Georgia]." Burger King Corp., supra, 105 SC at 2182. 2Based on the facts as they appear before us, we find that the appellant has not "purposefully done some act or consummated some transaction in" Georgia, Davis Metals, supra at 625, that would allow the courts of Georgia to exert jurisdiction over the appellant pursuant to OCGA 9-10-91 (1). W. Christopher Bracken III, Herbert D. Shellhouse, William G. McDaniel, for appellee. |