...[2] At the tax sale, DeKalb County sold the property to Heartwood 11, LLC, which later quit-claimed the property to Harpagon. [3] Although Davis contends that the fifa in this instance was not properly signed pursuant to the Electronic Records and Signatures Act, OCGA § 10-12-1 et....

...had agreed to be bound by electronic signatures.9 Winter, 331 Ga. App. at 532 (2) (a) n.6. In short, the State has not cited a single case, nor are we aware 9 The Georgia Electronic Records and Signatures Act was replaced by the GUETA in 2009. See OCGA § 10-12-1 et seq....

...llees presented no evidence that the Attorney General or the Department of Law had “agreed to send, accept, or rely upon electronic signatures or authorized his subordinates to do so in this instance or in any e-mail communication.” See OCGA § 10-12-18 (a) 10 OCGA § 10-12-7 (a) provides that “[a] record or signature shall not be denied legal effect or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form.” In addition, that statute goes on to state that “[a] contract s...

...extent to which, it will send and accept electronic records and electronic signatures to and from other persons and otherwise create, generate, communicate, store, process, use, and rely upon electronic records and electronic signatures”); OCGA § 10-12-18 (c) (providing that, apart from an exception not relevant here, the GUETA shall not require a state agency “to use or permit the use of electronic records or electronic signatures”). To determine whether the GUETA applies, we begin by examining the text, structure, and history of the GUETA....

...he trial court’s implicit conclusion that the State consented to conducting the transaction by electronic means. See OCGA § 10-12-5 (b). Furthermore, despite the State’s contentions, nothing in OCGA 32 § 10-12-18 (a) or (c) excepts the State from the GUETA under these circumstances....

...to enter into the Agreement by e-mail. Likewise, subsection (c) only makes clear that a governmental agency is not required to use electronic records or electronic signatures but does not prohibit the State from choosing to do so. Moreover, construing OCGA § 10-12-18 (a) and (c) as the State urges us to do would allow governmental agencies to invoke OCGA § 10-12-18 to invalidate an electronic transaction despite the fact that “the context and surrounding circumstances, including the parties’ conduct,” demonstrated that the parties had agreed to conduct the transaction electronically, thereb...

...Moreover, under general principles of contract law, a contract can be “memorialized in an e- mail for purposes of determining whether the State has waived its sovereign immunity,” and the Georgia Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, OCGA § 10-12-1 et seq., applies to a State agency where, as here, “the context and surrounding circumstances, including the parties’ conduct, demonstrate that the parties agreed to conduct the particular transaction at issue by electronic means.” Fed....