O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 15-16-18 (2019)

Purchase at own sale not permitted

✓ O.C.G.A. (archive.org 2024 item): print volumes of 2004-2024, per-volume vintage; older volumes partly replaced by 2019 Release 73 text; no 2025 or 2026 Acts
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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No sheriff or deputy or other officer discharging a similar duty shall be permitted to purchase any property whatever at his own sale, either upon his own bid or upon the bid of any other person for him, directly or indirectly. All such sales and deeds in pursuance thereto, intended to vest in such officer the title to the property so purchased, shall be null and void.

History

(Laws 1850, Cobb's 1851 Digest, p. 581; Code 1863, § 338; Code 1868, § 399; Code 1873, § 364; Code 1882, § 364; Ga. L. 1884-85, p. 472, § 9; Ga. L. 1890-91, p. 96, § 2; Civil Code 1895, § 4384; Civil Code 1910, § 4918; Code 1933, § 24-2821.)

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Agent of seller cannot become purchaser. - Former Civil Code 1895, § 4384 (see now O.C.G.A. § 15-16-18) was based on former Civil Code 1895, § 3010 (see now O.C.G.A. § 10-6-24), which provided that an agent of the seller cannot become the purchaser. Harrison v. McHenry, 9 Ga. 164, 52 Am. Dec. 435 (1850); Coleman v. Malcolm, 101 Ga. 303, 28 S.E. 861 (1897).

Crier appointed by sheriff cannot purchase at sale. - Sheriff may appoint a "crier" to conduct the sale for the sheriff, but the crier too comes under the rule and cannot purchase at the sale. Giles v. Bank of S.W. Ga., 102 Ga. 702, 29 S.E. 600 (1897); Associates Fin. Servs. Co. v. Johnson, 128 Ga. App. 712, 197 S.E.2d 764 (1973).

This section applies to receivers, who, like sheriffs and their deputies, make sales under the authority of some order or judgment of the court. Associates Fin. Servs. Co. v. Johnson, 128 Ga. App. 712, 197 S.E.2d 764 (1973).

Bids or purchases by deputy sheriff improper and void. - It is improper for a deputy sheriff to bid upon property at a sale conducted by the office to which the deputy is attached as deputy, and a purchase by the deputy at such a sale, either directly or through a sham transaction, is void. Associates Fin. Servs. Co. v. Johnson, 128 Ga. App. 712, 197 S.E.2d 764 (1973).

Cited in Mayor of Macon v. Huff, 60 Ga. 221 (1878).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d. - 47 Am. Jur. 2d, Judicial Sales, §§ 90, 91.

C.J.S. - 80 C.J.S., Sheriffs and Constables, § 83.

ALR. - Steps to be taken by officer before resale upon default of purchaser at judicial or execution sale, 24 A.L.R. 1330.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case, 2005–2005 · leading case: Tharp v. Vesta Holdings I, LLC, 625 S.E.2d 46 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005).
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Tharp v. Vesta Holdings I, LLC, 625 S.E.2d 46 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005). · cites it 8× “(d) Citing to OCGA § 15-16-18, Tharp further contends that Vesta should have been barred from bidding at the tax sale on the grounds that Vesta acted as the Sheriffs agent while preparing and serving the tax sale notices.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.