O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 53-4-23 (2019)

Testamentary gift to witness or witness’s spouse

✓ 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) If a subscribing witness is also a beneficiary under the will, the witness shall be competent; but the testamentary gift to the witness shall be void unless there are at least two other subscribing witnesses to the will who are not beneficiaries under the will.

(b) An individual may be a witness to a will by which a testamentary gift is given to that individual’s spouse, the fact going only to the credibility of the witness.

History

Code 1981, § 53-4-23, enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10.

Annotations

Cross references. - Competency of witnesses generally, § 24-6-601 et seq.

Law reviews. - For article discussing competency requirement for witnesses to a will in Georgia, see 11 Ga. L. Rev. 297 (1977).

COMMENT This section carries over former OCGA Sec. 53-2-45. RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. - 79 Am. Jur. 2d, Wills, §§ 269, 274. 80 Am. Jur. 2d, Wills, § 885. 81 Am. Jur. 2d, Witnesses, § 637. C.J.S. - 95 C.J.S., Wills, § 260 et seq.

ALR. - Competency of husband or wife of beneficiary as attesting witness to will, 25 A.L.R. 308.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 1 case (1 in the last 5 years), 2022–2022 · leading case: In Re the Est. of Randolph Benedict Curvan (Ga. Ct. App. 2022).

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In Re the Est. of Randolph Benedict Curvan (Ga. Ct. App. 2022). · cites it 2× “Little needs to be said about the first enumeration, that the bequest to Petitioner fails under OCGA § 53-4-23 (a) because she was both a witness and the sole beneficiary.”

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.