O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 19-7-47 (2019)

Civil action; testimony of mother and alleged father; default judgments

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)

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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(a) Any proceeding brought under this article is a civil action governed by the rules of civil procedure. The mother of the child and the alleged father are competent to testify and may be compelled to appear and testify.

(b) If in any paternity action an answer has not been filed within the time required by Chapter 11 of Title 9, the “Georgia Civil Practice Act,” the case shall automatically become in default unless the time for filing the answer has been extended as provided by law. The default may be opened as a matter of right by the filing of such defenses within 15 days of the day of default, upon the payment of costs. If the case is still in default after the expiration of the period of 15 days, the plaintiff at any time thereafter shall be entitled to verdict and judgment by default, in open court or in chambers, as if every item and paragraph of the complaint or other original pleading were supported by proper evidence.

History

Code 1933, § 74-308, enacted by Ga. L.

1980, p. 1374, § 1; Ga. L. 1994, p. 1270, § 5; Ga. L. 1999, p. 81, § 19.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Entry of judgment proper. - In an action to establish paternity and duty of support, the trial court was authorized to enter a final order after the father failed to file an answer or petition for legitima-

tion in response to the mother’s petition for paternity. Ross v. Small, 355 Ga. App. 483, 844 S.E.2d 535, 2020 Ga. App. LEXIS 336 (2020).

RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. 41 Am. Jur. 2d, Illegitimate Children, §§ 61, 65.

C.J.S. 14 C.J.S., Children Out-of-Wedlock, § 104 et seq.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 3 cases, 1987–2020 · leading case: Roderiquez v. Saylor, 380 S.E.2d 339 (Ga. Ct. App. 1989).

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Roderiquez v. Saylor, 380 S.E.2d 339 (Ga. Ct. App. 1989). · cites it 2× “OCGA § 19-7-47 provides: “Any proceeding brought under this article is a civil action governed by the rules of civil procedure.”

Mario Ross v. Chenea Small (Ga. Ct. App. 2020). · cites it 4× “As an initial matter, under OCGA § 19-7-47 (b), [i]f in any paternity action an answer has not been filed within the time required by Chapter 11 of Title 9, the “Georgia Civil Practice Act,” the case shall automatically become in default unless the time for filing the answer has…”

Stinson v. Pratt, 356 S.E.2d 519 (Ga. Ct. App. 1987). · cites it 2× “OCGA § 19-7-47. “The right of trial by jury as declared by the Constitution of the state or as given by a statute of the state shall be preserved to the parties inviolate.”

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.