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2018 Georgia Code 44-2-137 | Car Wreck Lawyer

Link to State of Georgia Official Statute 2018 Georgia Code Annotated (sourced from legal.resource.org)
O.C.G.A. 44-2-137 Case Law from Google Scholar Amendments to OCGA 44-2-137

TITLE 44 PROPERTY

Section 2. Recordation and Registration of Deeds and Other Instruments, 44-2-1 through 44-2-253.

ARTICLE 2 LAND REGISTRATION

44-2-137. What adverse claims affect registered land; effect of fraud or forgery; limitations on actions to set aside.

  1. Except in cases of fraud or forgery to which he is a party or to which he is a privy without valuable consideration paid in good faith, every registered owner of any estate or interest in land brought under this article shall hold the land free from any and all adverse claims, rights, or encumbrances not noted on the certificate of title in the title register except:
    1. Liens, claims, or rights arising or existing under the laws or Constitution of the United States which the laws of this state cannot require to appear of record under registry laws;
    2. Taxes and levies assessed for the current calendar year;
    3. Any lease for a term not exceeding three years under which the land is actually occupied; and
    4. Highways in public use and railroads in actual operation.
  2. No proceedings to attack or to set aside any transaction for such fraud or such forgery referred to in this Code section shall be brought or be entertained by any court unless the same is brought within seven years from the date of the transaction or of the registration to which the same relates. Nothing in this subsection shall conflict with the provisions of this article allowing attack for good cause to be made upon a registration made by the clerk at any time within 12 months from the date of such registration.

(Ga. L. 1917, p. 108, § 63; Code 1933, § 60-419.)

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Statute makes no provision for existing claim to be subsequently recorded. Lankford v. Milhollin, 204 Ga. 193, 48 S.E.2d 729 (1948) (see O.C.G.A. § 44-2-137).

Allegations of true owner in setting aside registration of owner's lands in another.

- As in cases of fraud or forgery, the decrees registering title are not conclusive upon adverse claimants. When the true owner files an equitable petition to set aside a registration of the owner's lands in the name of another, it is not incumbent upon the owner to allege that the owner was ignorant of the facts upon which the owner attacks the registration, or that the owner was prevented from making it by the fraud of the applicant, unmixed with fraud or negligence on the owner's part. Rock Run Iron Co. v. Miller, 156 Ga. 136, 118 S.E. 670 (1923).

Fraud cannot be based upon constructive notice and there must be actual notice of existent facts, concealment of which was used in effort to defraud. Thus, failure to disclose a fact of which one has no actual notice cannot constitute fraud merely because one to whom fraud was imputed did not exercise ordinary diligence to discover facts which might have been ascertained thereby. Hudson v. Varn Turpentine & Cattle Co., 176 Ga. 538, 168 S.E. 581 (1933).

Knowing registration under forged deed authorizes action to set aside.

- Where an applicant for registration asserts title under a deed known by the applicant to be forged, and the application for registration is based on such deed, the applicant is guilty of such fraud as will authorize the true owner to institute an equitable action to set aside the certificate of registration. Rock Run Iron Co. v. Miller, 156 Ga. 136, 118 S.E. 670 (1923).

Cited in Couey v. Talalah Estates Corp., 183 Ga. 442, 188 S.E. 822 (1936).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 66 Am. Jur. 2d, Registration of Land Titles, §§ 9, 20, 23.

C.J.S.

- 76 C.J.S., Registration of Land Titles, §§ 19, 21, 22, 24.

ALR.

- Effect of fraud to toll the period for bringing action prescribed in statute creating the right of action, 15 A.L.R.2d 500.

Transferees entitled to protection under Torrens Act certificate of title, 42 A.L.R.2d 1387.

Fraud as extending statutory limitations period for contesting will or its probate, 48 A.L.R.4th 1094.

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