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

O.C.G.A. § 36-9-6 (2019)

Courthouse rooms to be used by county officers

✓ 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.
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section GA-LEGlegis.ga.gov (official) JustiaJustia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

The county governing authority shall designate the rooms in the courthouse to be occupied by each of the county officers and enter the same on its minutes, which it may change from time to time as convenience may require.

History

Orig. Code 1863, § 470; Code 1868, § 532; Code 1873, § 498; Code

1882, § 498; Civil Code 1895, § 353; Civil Code 1910, § 401; Code 1933, § 91-703.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Public access. - Courthouse is a public building, and as a matter of course the public does not require any permission to enter therein at suitable times and under reasonable regulations. All persons must be allowed equal privileges, both as to access to documents and as to reasonable space within which to transact business incident to the examination of the public records. Atlanta Title & Trust Co. v. Tidwell, 173 Ga. 499, 160 S.E. 620 (1931). The expression ‘‘county officers,’’ as used in this section, refers to those officers who are such in the strict sense of the term - that is, those who are constitutional county officers; and the officers are such, under the provisions of the Constitution, as shall be elected under Ga.

Const. 1877, Art. XI, Sec. II, Para. I (see now Ga. Const. 1983, Art. IX, Sec. I, Para. III). It does not apply to a city court solicitor. Graham v. Merritt, 165 Ga. 489, 141 S.E. 298 (1928). Justice of the peace (now magistrate) elected by the people is not a ‘‘county officer’’ within the meaning of this section, and therefore is not, as a matter of law or right, entitled to have a room in the courthouse for use as an office or place of holding court. McDonald v. Marshall, 185 Ga. 438, 195 S.E. 571 (1938). Cited in Turner v. Johnston, 183 Ga. 176, 187 S.E. 864 (1936); Truesdel v. Freeney, 186 Ga. 288, 197 S.E. 783 (1938).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Judges’ and clerks’ offices at courthouse. - Judges of the probate courts and clerks of the superior courts, being constitutional county officers, have a right to maintain their offices in the county

courthouse, unless special circumstances make it impractical for the judges and clerks to be located there. 1978 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 78-15.