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THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
LAW LIBRARY
DONATED BY W.B. STEIS
AS A TOKEN OF LOVE AND ESTEEM
FOR
HIS DAUGHTER KATHRYN FAYE STEIS
AND
HER HUSBAND JAMES MONROE PACE, ESQ
LOYAL ALUMNI OF GEORGIA
The University of Georgia
uSEEESJZL geo»gia law LIBRARY
Alexander Campbell King Law Library
3 8425 00479 9727
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation
http://www.archive.org/details/codeofgeorgiaof100prep
'""
LAW LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY 0-- BORGIA
THE
CODE OF GEORGIAOF
1933
ADOPTED MARCH 24, 1933
EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 1935
PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION
OF THECODE COMMISSION
BY
ORVILLE A. PARK and HARRY S. STROZIER
Harry B. Skillman Henry H. Cobb
ATLANTA
THE HARRISON COMPANY
1935
C,3
Copyright, 1935
BY
The State of Georgia
PRESS OF FOOTE & DAVIES CO., ATLANTA
FOREWORD.
Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the last official Owas adopted. During that period 20 regular and five extraordinary
sions of the General Assembly have been held, and the volume of statute
law has been practically doubled. Far-reaching changes in the govern-
mental structure of the State have been effected by the creation of such
new and important administrative agencies as the Highway Board, the
Department of Audits and Accounts, the Securities Commission, the de-
partments of Archives and History, of Commerce and Labor, of Gameand Fish, and the Banking Department. The Insurance Department has
been reorganized. The Budget Act has brought about many very im-
portant changes in governmental operation. While the functions of
these and other agencies of the government have been substantially re-
tained, sweeping changes have been made in the machinery of administra-
tion by the Reorganization Act of 1931, which comprehended in its effect
practically all of the departments of the Government. There have been
complete revisions of many topics of the law, new enactments super-
seding whole titles as they appeared in the Code of 1910. Instances of
such revisions include the School Code, the Banking Act of 1919, the
Negotiable Instruments Act, and the insurance laws, to mention only a
few of the more important. In addition, a considerable body of legisla-
tion has been passed dealing with entirely new subjects, such as the
registration of titles to land, regulation of motor carriers, workmen's
compensation, and aviation. New forms of taxation have been introduced,
such as income and inheritance taxes and the important levies on gaso-
line and on cigars and cigarettes. In the same category are the laws pro-
viding for the establishment of juvenile and municipal courts, most of
those creating boards for the regulation of professions and trades, and
many others of importance. The law upon all these subjects is officially
codified for the first time in this Code. As a result of all these develop-
ments, one can get but a very poor picture of the law of Georgia today
from the last official Code, adopted in 1910.
The compiling of this mass of new legislation, fitting it in with the
more than 10,000 sections of the old Civil and Penal Codes and makingthe changes required, has involved long and patient labor on the part of
many. The codifiers wish to express their deep appreciation and hearty
thanks to all who have contributed to the work in any way. First wemust record our gratitude to Mr. Justice Gilbert, Chairman, and to the
other members of the Code Commission, who, with painstaking care, day
after day, have considered the manuscript, discussed changes and prob-
lems of codification, advised with the codifiers and assisted in every pos-
sible way in the work as it progressed. We are fully persuaded that noprevious Code of Georgia has received so careful a scrutiny as has this,
and that no codifiers have been given as much valuable assistance as has
been freely and cheerfully given us.
We wish also to express our thanks to Attorney General Yeomans andthe officers of the Department of Law, especially to Assistant AttorneyGeneral B. D. Murphy, for their invaluable help on many a problem. Atthe request of the Code Commission, Mr. Murphy was designated by the
FOREWORD.
Attorney General to work with the Commission. He sat with the Com-mission in many of its sessions when portions of the manuscript were
under consideration, and carefully examined many of the Titles, making
numbers of valuable suggestions. We have consulted with him fre-
quently in person and by letter, and always with profit. His intimate
knowledge of the State government and its operation has aided in the
solution of many a problem.
The officers of many of the State departments have been uniformly
kind and courteous in placing records at our disposal and advising as to
the operation and practice of their respective departments. From themwe have received many useful suggestions and* no little help. We have
also called on several Bibb county officials and have been accorded like
courteous and considerate treatment.
We acknowledge our indebtedness to The Harrison Company, pub-
lisher of the Code, without whose financing the wrork could not have been
accomplished. The Harrison Company has borne the entire cost of edi-
torial and clerical work, extending over a period of more than four years,
as well as the cost of the printing and binding.
We must also record our grateful appreciation of the faithful and effi-
cient service of those who for so long have labored with us to produce
this work, Harry B. Skillman and Henry H. Cobb, whose names appear
on the title page, and Fred W. New, George Stokes Walton, Orville A.
Park, Jr., Brainerd Currie and Miss Elmyr Park, who at various times
for considerable periods have worked with us.
In the preparation of this Code we have not spared time, labor, pains,
nor expense. It has been our ambition to give to the State an accurate
and usable Code of laws, complete through the legislative session of 1933.
How well we have succeeded time and use alone will reveal. That errors
will be discovered we know. When it is remembered how many have
been concerned in its' preparation—editors, assistants, stenographers,
typesetters, proofreaders and printers—it is easy to understand that someerrors are inevitable. We hope they have been reduced to a minimum,and that such as may be discovered will not be so numerous or so seri-
ous as to lessen materially the value of the work as a whole. No one is
so conscious of the imperfections of the work as are those of us who have
expended so much time and effort upon it. We commit the Code of 1933
to an ever generous profession with the hope that in some degree it mayadvance the science of jurisprudence, aid in the administration of justice,
and facilitate the conduct of the public business of the State.
tqtydmn^
TV
REPORT OF THE CODE COMMISSION.
Atlanta, Georgia, November 22, 1934.
To His Excellency, Eugene Talmadge, Governor,
State Capitol,
Atlanta, Georgia.
Dear Sir:
The General Assembly adopted a Resolution approved August 27,
1929, "Providing for the designation of a commission to have prepared
for adoption a new revised Code of the Laws of this State; and for other
purposes." Ga. L. 1929, p. 1487. In pursuance of said Resolution and as
authorized thereby, the Supreme Court designated Justice Gilbert and
the Court of Appeals designated Chief Judge Broyles, and in accordance
with the resolution the Commission, as organized and constituted, con-
sisted of the two above named members and in addition George W.Stevens, Reporter of the Supreme Court, the late W. Cecil Neill, then
President of the Senate, and Richard B. Russell, Jr., then Speaker of the
House of Representatives.
Among the provisions of the Resolution is the following: "Said com-
mission shall have authority to determine the form and manner in which
all manuscripts shall be submitted, so as to secure an accurate, concise,
plain, and comprehensive revision and codification of the laws of this
State; and to that end said commission may require that all useless, con-
tradictory, and confusing language shall be omitted, changes in arrange-
ments, wording and phraseology made, statutes digested, and inconsist-
encies reconciled." It was provided that the Commission was author-
ized and directed to negotiate with the compiler for the publication of a
sufficient number of copies of the Code for distribution as therein pro-
vided, and to report their recommendations to the next regular session
of the General Assembly; the contract to be binding only when ap-
proved by the General Assembly. The Commission as then constituted
pursuant to the Resolution accepted and adopted a manuscript prepared
by Orville A. Park and Harry S. Strozier for The Harrison Company,
Law Book Publishers of Atlanta. This manuscript of the Code was
submitted by the Commission to the General Assembly. At the regular
session of 1933, the General Assembly passed an Act "to adopt and make
of force the Code of Laws approved by the Code Commission appointed
under resolution approved August 27, 1929; to provide for the inclusion
in said Code of laws and resolutions of a general nature, adopted since
the completion of the manuscript of said Code; to authorize the Code
Commission to contract for the publication of said Code, and for the fur-
nishing of copies thereof for the use of the officers of the State, and for
distribution thereof; and for other purposes." This Act was approved
March 24, 1933 (Ga. L. 1933, p. 31), and, omitting formal parts, pro-
vides: "Section 1.—That the Code of Laws which was prepared under
C-
REPORT OF THE CODE COMMISSION.
the editorial supervision of Orville A. Park and Harry S. Strozier,
under the direction of the Code Commission created by joint resolution
approved August 27, 1929, and composed of S. Price Gilbert, Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court, Nash R. Broyles, Chief Judge of the Court
of Appeals, Richard B. Russell, Jr., Speaker of the House, W. Cecil
Xeill, President of the Senate, and George W. Stevens, Reporter of the
Supreme Court, and which was approved by said Commission after it
was so prepared, be and the same is hereby adopted and made of force
as the Code of Georgia, having the effect of statutes enacted by the
General Assembly of this State. Section 2.—That the said Code shall
contain all Acts and Resolutions of a general nature and approved since
the approval of the manuscript of the said Code by the Code Commis-
sion, including all Acts and Resolutions of a general nature which have
been or may be adopted and approved at the present session, all of said
Acts and Resolutions to be properly placed and classified under the su-
pervision of the Code Commission, said Code Commission being hereby
given authority to place the same in the Code and to make whatever
changes may be rendered necessary in the existing laws by the passage
of any of said Acts and Resolutions. Section 3.—That the said Code
of Laws shall go into effect on the proclamation of the Governor, made
upon the completion of the publication and delivery of copies thereof,
as hereinafter provided, to the State Librarian, and that it shall be
known as the Code of Georgia of 1933. Section 4.—That the Code Com-mission shall be continued until the final completion of the Code, and
its final approval by the Code Commission, the publication thereof, and
the delivery to the State of copies as hereinafter provided ; and that the
President of the present Senate [Hamilton McWhorter] and the Speaker
of the present House of Representatives [E. D. Rivers] be made ex-
officio members of said Commission, taking the place of their predeces-
sors in office. Section 5.—That the Code Commission be authorized to
enter into a contract for the compilation and completion of the manu-
script as hereinbefore provided, by the inclusion of a codification of the
laws adopted since the compilation of the manuscript and its approval
by the Code Commission, and including a comprehensive index, and
such other matter as to the Code Commission may seem advisable, and
to contract for the publication of the said Code," in accordance with the
requirements of the Act.
In obedience to the aforesaid Resolution and Act of the General As-
sembly, the Commission has carefully examined all the manuscript pre-
pared under the editorial supervision of Orville A. Park and Harry S.
Strozier, in which have been included the general laws enacted at the
1931 and 1933 sessions, as provided by the Act of 1933, and approved
the same as finally completed. We have endeavored to perform the du-
ties conferred upon the Commission in accordance with the terms of the
#bove Resolution and the Act of the General Assembly, to the end that
"useless, contradictory, and confusing language should be omitted, and
VI
REPORT OF THE CODE COMMISSION.
that changes in the wording and phraseology be made, and statutes di-
gested, and inconsistencies reconciled as far as possible."
We deem it proper to state that in the work we have had the hearty
cooperation and assistance of the Department of Law of the State of
Georgia; and we commend most heartily the comprehensive and intelli-
gent work of Messrs. Park and Strozier and their assistants, Harry B.
Skillman and Henry H. Cobb.
The Commission has contracted with The Harrison Company for de-
livery to the State of the number of copies specified in the contract on
file in the Executive Department of the State.
This report is made to the Governor of the State as a basis for his
proclamation as provided in section 3 of the Act of 1933, Georgia Laws1933, at page 32.
Respectfully submitted,
<2y K G%?>Justice of the Supreme Court
Chairman
cAf<xfcVv (/iChief Judge of the Court of Appekls
Reporter of the Supreme Court
President of the Senate
Speaker of the House of Representative:
VII
A PROCLAMATIONMAKING EFFECTIVE THE CODE OF GEORGIA OF 1933.
WHEREAS, by a Resolution approved August 27, 1929, the General
Assembly of Georgia created a Code Commission, with authority to ex-
amine such manuscript or manuscripts, containing a compilation of all
laws of Georgia of general application, as might be submitted to
Commission, and with authority to determine the form and manner in
which all such manuscripts should be submitted ; and,
WHEREAS said Code Commission did make a report to the General
Assembly of Georgia, as contemplated by said Resolution approved Au-gust 27, 1929; and,
WHEREAS, by an Act approved March 24, 1933, the Code of Lawsof the State of Georgia, prepared under the direction of said Commis-sion, was adopted by the General Assembly of Georgia and made of
force as the Code of Georgia; and,
WHEREAS, by said Act of March 24, 1933, it was provided that said
Code should also contain all Acts and Resolutions of a general nature
enacted subsequent to the approval of said manuscript by the Code
Commission, and the said Commission was authorized to place all such
Acts and Resolutions in the Code, and to make such changes as might be
rendered necessary in the existing laws by the passage of any of said
Acts and Resolutions ; and,
WHEREAS, by said Act of March 24, 1933, it was further provided
that said Code of Laws should go into effect upon the proclamation of
*the Governor, made upon the completion of the publication of said Code
and the delivery of copies thereof to the State Librarian as provided by
said Act of March 24, 1933 ; and,
W'HEREAS it appears from the report of the Code Commission pre-
sented to the Governor that said Commission has completed the revision
of the manuscript of said Code as contemplated by said Act of March
24, 1933, that the same has been published, and that the necessary copies
thereof, as provided for by said Act of March 24, 1933, are ready for de-
livery to the State Librarian of Georgia, as required by said Act;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, EUGENE TALMADGE, GOVERNOROF GEORGIA, pursuant to said Act of March 24, 1933, do make this
proclamation and do hereby declare said Code of Laws of the State of
Georgia, as approved by said Code Commission, effective as the Code of
Georgia of 1933 as of and upon the 1st day of January, 1935.
Given under my hand and the Great Seal of the State, this the 14th
day of December, 1934.
BY THE GOVERNOR:
*=zZ*^ Secretary of State
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
Arrangement.
The 114 Titles in this Code are arranged alphabetically, as in an en-
cyclopedia. This is a radical departure from the plan of the previous
Georgia Codes, with their four divisions, Political, Civil, Practice, and
Penal. It is the plan of the United States Code and that of the recent
Codes of several of the States. The advantages of this arrangement are
obvious. In previous Codes a single topic was often split into two,
sometimes into three, parts and placed in widely separated divisions of
the Code, one part in the Political or Civil Division, another in the Codeof Practice, and perhaps still another in the Penal Code. Unless one
was quite familiar with the Code and its arrangement, the task of locat-
ing a particular topic was well-nigh hopeless except through the index.
In this Code one need only turn the pages and follow the alphabet as
he would in an encyclopedia or digest until he locates the Title sought.
If perchance he has in mind a topic which has been given a different
name, he will find in its proper place the name he seeks and will be di-
rected to the appropriate Title. All the usual digest heads are listed
alphabetically, making it easy to locate any Title without reference to
the index.
Not only have the different parts of a topic been brought together to
form a single Title, but in several instances cognate and closely related
topics have been combined and placed in one Title. Title 113, Wills,
Descent, and Administration of Estates, is an example of such combina-
tion. Title 67, Mortgages, Conveyances to Secure Debt, and Liens, is
another instance.
Much of the regulatory legislation of recent years carries penal sanc-
tions. In previous Codes the penal provisions have been separated from
the civil sections to which they apply and have been placed in the Penal
Code. In this Code such penal provisions are placed in the last Chap-
ter of the Title to which they relate. This has prevented duplication,
and will facilitate the use of the Code and aid in finding and understand-
ing the law. What may be termed substantive crimes will be found in
Title 26, Crimes and Punishment. Title 27, Criminal Procedure, com-
prises the law of pleading, practice, and procedure in criminal cases.
The great increase of, and many changes in, the statute law have
made changes in the arrangement of titles and sections desirable, if not
necessary. Many such changes have been made. Many long sections
embracing two or more subjects have been divided into several shorter
sections. Occasionally sections have been combined. The effort has
been at all times to ascertain and give effect to the legislative intent,
and to arrange the matter so as to clarify and simplify the law.
Cross-references.
Besides the alphabetically arranged topic heads with references to the
Titles in which the topics are treated, there are at the beginning of the
several Titles cross-references to other Titles, Chapters, and sections
in which cognate subjects may be found. Following most of the sec-
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
tions there are still other cross-references to sections which may be of
aid in understanding, construing, and applying the section. These three
types of cross-references are designed to bring to the attention of the
searcher all the law contained in the Code relating to any particular
subject.
Cross-references were first introduced in the Code of 1873, but in that
Code and in the succeeding ones these references consisted only of the
numbers of sections. This necessitated looking them up one by one to
determine whether they were pertinent to the inquiry then being made.
The cross-references in this Code give enough of the content of the sec-
tions to which reference is made for one to decide at once whether he
cares to follow the reference.
Index.
No effort has been spared to make a good index. This is especially
true of the practice and procedural Titles, in the use of which such an
index is particularly necessary. There is only one index, the separate
Penal Code index having been eliminated because it is unnecessary. Theindex is extraordinarily full and complete, containing more than 50,000
references. The effort has been so to index every section that it can be
found easily, regardless of where the searcher may look. It is believed
that the work will be found serviceable and easy to use. It is hoped that
it will prove to be the best index ever made for a Georgia Code.
Analyses and Section Heads.
It is thought, however, that the necessity for using the index will not
be so great in this Code as it has been in the use of previous Codes, on
account of the extraordinarily full analyses and section heads. At the
beginning of each Title is an analysis or list of the Chapters into which it
is divided, arranged in numerical order. A similar analysis or list of the
sections composing the Chapter is placed at the head of each Chapter.
Having located the Title in its alphabetical order, one may select at a
glance the Chapter in which he is interested, and, running his eye over
the Chapter analysis, may quickly and easily locate the particular sec-
tion or sections which he desires to consult. These he will find grouped
together with some attempt at logical arrangement.
In a number of instances, the section heads have been rewritten so as
to indicate more accurately the contents of the section, and the heads
have been materially expanded.
It is rarely necessary to use the index in an encyclopedia or digest.
This Code is arranged on the same plan. A section or particular pro-
vision may readily be found without reference to the index.
Numbering System.
Instead of numbering the sections consecutively from the beginning
to the end of the Code, as has been the practice in previous compilations,
an entirely new scheme has been adopted. The Titles are numberedconsecutively from 1 to 114. These Titles are divided into Chapters,
which are also numbered consecutively beginning with 1, except that
XII
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
the last Chapter, containing the penal provisions, is arbitrarily num-bered 99. The sections of each Chapter begin with 1. The section num-
ber is a combination of the numbers of the Title, the Chapter, and the
section. Thus the first section in the Code is numbered, 1-101, which
means Title 1, Chapter 1, section 1. Suppose the first pen a] pro
of the Banking Law is to be cited. The Title Banks and Banking is
Title 13; the section therefore is 13-9901. By making the number of the
Title a part of the section number, the necessity for writing "Title" or
an abbreviation thereof is avoided. The number preceding the dash is
the number of the Title, but at the same time is just as much a part of
the section number as is the last figure. The use of the number of the
Chapter as a part of the section number will greatly facilitate the lo-
cation of the section in the Title as well as in the Code itself.
Under this system new laws may be incorporated in the Code with-
out disarranging the numbering scheme and without requiring the use
of lettered sections or numbers in parentheses, which have been so con-
fusing in other Codes. We shall no longer be confronted with § 993
(wwwww) or § 1770 (60aaa). An Act falling appropriately in a partic-
ular Chapter may be placed at the end of that Chapter and given the
section number next in regular order. If a new law is enacted, it maybe added to the Title to which it naturally belongs as a new Chapter.
When a Chapter is repealed or superseded, the new law simply takes its
place and is given its number. It makes no difference whether the sec-
tions of the new Chapter are fewer or more numerous than those of the
old. An entire Title may be repealed and a new one substituted for it,
as was done in 1924 when the Negotiable Instruments Act was adopted,
without affecting the general numbering system. New editions of the
Code may be published, with the new legislation included and repealed
sections omitted, particular Titles may be revised and published sep-
arately, and the same numbering be retained.
Source Notes and Tables.
Where a section of this Code is taken in whole or in part from the
Code of 1910, the number of the section in that Code is inserted in pa-
rentheses immediately after the section number, and at the end of the
text is a table showing where all sections of the Code of 1910 may be
found in this Code. This table also shows all sections which have been
omitted and the reason for their omission. A similar table shows where
the Acts from 1910 to 1933, inclusive, have been codified and why cer-
tain Acts or sections of Acts have been omitted.
At the end of each section, in parentheses, is shown the source from
which the section is codified. Where' more than one Act is cited, the
meaning, of course, is that the later Act or Acts amend or modify the
earlier. Citation of a case following an Act indicates that the decision
cited modifies the section as it wras adopted originally. In a consider-
able number of cases, sections have been codified from decisions of the
Supreme Court, and these decisions are given as the sources of the
sections so derived.
Where no source note is shown, the section usually has come down
XIII
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
without change from the Code of 1863, stating a principle of the com-
mon law which was included in that Code pursuant to the authority
given to the Commissioners to include therein the entire body of law
of force in this State, from whatever source derived.
Where the source of a section is an Act antedating Cobb's New Di-
gest, published in 1851, the citation is to the Digest rather than to the
session laws. This is because the volumes containing the session laws
prior to 1S00 are practically nonexistent, and all those prior to 1851 are
exceedingly rare. A reference to the Act of a particular year, followed
by "Cobb," etc., means an Act adopted in the year indicated, and in-
cluded in Cobb's Digest at the given page. *
Cobb's Digest contains the Penal Code of 1833 as amended up to the
time of the publication of the Digest. A reference to a section ,of that
Code is simply to the page in "Cobb" on which it appears, no Act being
cited.
Editorial Notes.
Sometimes it has seemed desirable to give the history of a section, to
point out its possible unconstitutionality, to explain a change in it, or
to call special attention to some other section or Title in connection
with it. Editorial notes have been freely used for such purposes. It is
hoped that they will be of assistance in the intelligent use of the Code.
The Title embodying the Constitution of Georgia, especially, is liberally
furnished with such notes.
General Laws of Local Application.
The practice has grown up of evading the provision of the Constitu-
tion forbidding the enactment of a "special law in any case for which
provision has been made by an existing general law," by passing laws
general in form but with operation limited to counties having a certain
population, or to those containing cities of a certain size. In nearly
every case the limits are so fixed as to embrace only a single county.
The Code of 1910 contains a considerable number of such laws. At the
time that Code was adopted this type of legislation was just beginning.
The volume of it has increased greatly since that time. Such statutes
are in all essential respects local laws, and there is no more reason for
including them in a Code than there would be for including the large
number of local laws which are enacted at each session of the General
Assembly. Many of these laws, under repeated decisions of the Su-
preme Court, are undoubtedly unconstitutional ; but whether unconsti-
tutional or not, they are of interest to only a very few counties, and, as
a rule, to only one. These laws have not been included in this Code,
but are referred to in the editorial notes in the Title and Chapter in
which they would appear if they had been codified.
Changes Made in the Text.
The Resolution creating the Code Commission (Acts 1929, pp. 1487,
1488) authorized the Commission to determine the form of the manu-
script, "so as to secure an accurate, concise, plain, and comprehensive
revision and codification of the laws of this State; and to that end said
xiv
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
Commission may require that all useless, contradictory, and confu
language shall be omitted, changes in arrangements, wording and
phraseology made, statutes digested, and inconsistencies reconciled."
,The Act adopting the Code (Acts 1933, pp. 31, 32) gave the Commissionauthority to include the Acts passed at the 1933 session of the General
Assembly, and "to make whatever changes may be rendered necessary
in the existing laws [by] the passage of any of said Acts and Resolu-
tions." The Code of Georgia contains the statutes enacted by the Colo-
nial and State legislatures in the two hundred years since the English
Colony was founded. It also contains English statutes which were in
force at the time of the separation from the mother country, and com-mon-law principles developed and declared both in England and in
Georgia. Many of these principles were included in the Code of 1863.
Many others were codified from decisions of the Supreme Court and
first appeared in the Code of 1895. A few others have been added in
this Code. During the long period in which the law of Georgia has
been in the making, many statutes have been repealed in whole or in
part, some expressly and others by implication. Numerous and repeated
amendments have been made. New Acts have been passed, sometimes
with no regard to previous statutes. Sections have been declared un-
constitutional by the Supreme Court. Other sections have been changed
by judicial construction. Changes have been made by the different
Codes. Much of the legislation has been prepared hastily and carelessly.
The aim of the codifiers has been to harmonize this mass of legisla-
tion, to reconcile conflicting provisions, to eliminate provisions no
longer of force, as well as obsolete and archaic expressions, to correct
the grammar and the construction of sentences where to do so appeared
desirable in the interest of clearness and accuracy, to strike out purely
superfluous words and redundant expressions. It should be emphasized
that the purpose has been, not to legislate or to change the meaning of
the law, but to state it as it is. Where a change in arrangement or
phraseology has been made, the presumption should be that it was not
the intention to change the law as it has been construed by the courts.
An illustration of the character of the work done is the correction of
more than 80 clerical errors in the Negotiable Instruments Law, which
was carefully compared with the text of the uniform law and made to
conform to it except in the three or four particulars in which the intent
of the General Assembly to depart from the uniform law was apparent.
Another illustration is the omission of sections and provisions relating
to the old equity practice. These were abolished by the Uniform Pro-
cedure Act of 1887, but they have nevertheless been repeated in all the
Codes since that Act was adopted.
United States and Georgia Constitutions.
Instead of placing these Constitutions in the back of the Code, the
codifiers have given them first place. They appear here as Titles 1 and 2.
The Constitution of the United States as found in Title 1 follows the
original draft, the original spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, and cap-
xv
EXPLANATORY NOTE.
italization being preserved. This is the first exact and literal copy of
the Constitution to be contained in a Georgia Code.
The Georgia Constitution of 1877 has been carefully compared with
the original signed copy in the office of the Secretary of State, and as
printed in Title 2 is made to conform in every slightest detail to the
original. This appears never to have been done before. It will surprise
most Georgians to know that the paragraph in which Atlanta is namedas the Capital of the State does not appear in the Constitution, but is
simply an ordinance of the Convention. The notes in which the original
wording of the sections and the changes made by the several amend-
ments are given, it is believed, will prove helpful.
Rules of Court.
The rules of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and the su-
perior courts have been included in the previous Codes, not as part of the
text, but as supplementary matter appearing in the back of the volume.
The revised rules of court, while not strictly a part of the Code, have been
included in this volume and, for convenience, have been placed in their
appropriate positions in Title 24, Courts, to which they properly relate.
This is in accordance with the plan of bringing together in one Title all
the law on the subject.
ABBREVIATIONS AND CITATIONS USED IN THIS CODE.
/—Georgia Supreme Court Reports. Thus 155/99 means the 155th
volume of Georgia Supreme Court Reports, page 99.
App.—Georgia Court of Appeals Reports.
Cobb—Cobb's New Digest, Laws of Georgia (1851).
Const.—Constitution of the State of Georgia.
Const. U. S.—Constitution of the United States.
Extra. Sess.—Acts l
of General Assembly of Georgia, Extraordinary
Session.
Fed.—Federal Reporter.
F. (2d)—Federal Reporter, Second Series,
Fed. Supp.—Federal Supplement.
Ga.—Georgia Supreme Court Reports.
Ga. App.—Georgia Court of Appeals Reports.
Ga. L.—Georgia Session Laws.
L. Ed.—Lawyers' edition, United States Supreme Court Reports.
N. I. L.—Negotiable Instruments Law.P. C—Penal Code of Georgia, 1910.
Park's Ann. Code—Park's Annotated Code of Georgia (1914).
R. S.—United States Revised Statutes.
S. E.—South Eastern Reporter.
Stat.—United States Statutes at Large.
Sup. Ct. Rep.—Supreme Court Reporter.
U. S.—Official United States Supreme Court Reports.
U. S. C. A.—United States Code Annotated.
Abbreviations used in the Tables are explained in the notes accom-panying them.
XVI
TABLE OF CONTENTS.Title V
1. Constitution of the United States 1
2. Constitution of the State of Georgia 25
3. Actions 1 07
4. Agency 1 27
5. Agriculture 136
6. Appeal and Error 1 89
7. Arbitration and Award 219
8. Attachment 226
9. Attorneys at Law 246
10. Auditors 261
1 1. Aviation 266
12. Bailments 271
13. Banks and Banking 2<S2
14. Bills and Notes 352
15. Boundaries and Jurisdiction of the State 390
16. Building and Loan Associations 394
17. Canal and Navigation Companies 402
18. Carriers 410
19. Certiorari 429
20. Contracts 438
21
.
Coroners 460
22. Corporations 466
23. Counties 503
24. Courts 577
25. Credit Unions ; Small Loans; Salary Buyers 726
26. Crimes and Punishment 744
27. Criminal Procedure 827
28. Debtor and Creditor .* 869
29. Deeds 878
30. Divorce and Alimony 888
31. Dower 897
32. Education 902
33. Ejectment 985
34. Elections 990
35. Eleemosynary Institutions 1047
36. Eminent Domain 1074
37. Equity 1091
38. Evidence 1116
39. Executions and Proceedings Thereunder 1167
40. Executive Department 1192
41. Express Companies 1238
42. Food and Drugs 1242
43. Forestry and Geology 1272
44. Fugitives From Justice 1281
45. Game and Fish 1284
46. Garnishment 1320
XVII
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Title pAGE47. General Assembly 1334
48. Gifts 1346
49. Guardian and Ward 1349
50. Habeas Corpus 1378
51. Homestead and Exemptions 1384
52. Hotels and Inns 1400
53. Husband and Wife 1405
54. Industrial Relations 1420
55. Injunctions and Receivers 1433
56. Insurance 1441
57. Interest and Usury ! ;. 1550
58. Intoxicating Liquors 1554
59. Juries <. 1575
60. Land Registration 1600
61. Landlord and Tenant 1651
62. Live Stock : 1663
63. Lost Papers 1689
64. Mandamus, Quo Warranto, and Prohibition. 1696
65. Marketing Associations 1702
66. Master and Servant 1715
67. Mortgages, Conveyances to Secure Debt, and Liens 1727
68. Motor Vehicles 1764
69. Municipal Corporations 1805
70. New Trial 1827
71. Notaries Public and Commissioners of Deeds 1833
72. Nuisances 1837
73. Paints, Oils, and Petroleum Products 1845
74. Parent and Child 1855
75. Partnership .* 1863
76. Peace Warrants and Behavior Bonds 1876
77. Penal Institutions 1878
78. Pensions 1907
79. Persons . . / 1917
80. Pilots and Pilotage 1923
81. Pleading and Practice 1933
82. Possessory Warrants 1959
83. Private Ways 1963
84. Professions, Businesses, and Trades 1970
85. Property 2061
86. Public Defense 2091
87. Public Finance 2124
88. Public Health 2140
89. Public Officers 2184
90. Public Printing 2216
91. Public Property 222S
92. Public Revenue 2237
93. Public Service Commission 2434
XVIII
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Title Page94. Railroads 2454
95. Roads, Bridges, and Ferries 2494
96. Sales 2
97. Securities 2
98. Shipping and Seamen 2578
99. Social Welfare ; 2
100. State Depositories 2591
101. State Librarian 2597
102. Statutes 2603
103. Suretyship 2009
104. Telegraph and Telephone Companies 2617
105. Torts 2623
106. Trade-Marks and Trade Names 2647
107. Trover 2652
108. Trusts 2657
109. Trust Companies 2677
1 10. Verdict and Judgment 2690
111. "Warehousemen 2705
112. Weights and Measures 271
1
113. Wills, Descent, and Administration of Estates 2714
1 14. Workmen's Compensation ' 2777
Table showing where secflons of the Civil Code of 1910 may befound in this Code 2807
Table showing where sections of the Penal Code of 1910 may befound in this Code 2835
Tables showing where Acts of the General Assembly passed since
1909 may be found in this Code 2843
Table showing where laws of force antedating the Code of 1910, butnot embraced in that Code, may be found herein 2892
General Index 2893
XIX