2020 Georgia Code
Title 53 - Wills, Trusts, and Administration of Estates
Chapter 1 - General Provisions
Article 1 - In General
§ 53-1-1. Short Title; Effective Date of Provisions

1. This chapter and Chapters 2 through 11 of this title, as such chapters were enacted by an Act approved April 2, 1996 (Ga. L. 1996, p. 504), and as amended by an Act approved April 29, 1997 (Ga. L. 1997, p. 1352), and as such chapters may be amended in the future, shall be known and may be cited as the "Revised Probate Code of 1998."
2. Except as otherwise provided by law, the provisions contained in this chapter and Chapters 2 through 11 of this title shall be effective on January 1, 1998; provided, however, that no vested rights of title, year's support, succession, or inheritance shall be impaired.

(Code 1981, §53-1-1, enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1352, § 1; Ga. L. 1998, p. 1586, § 5; Ga. L. 2011, p. 752, § 53/HB 142.)

The 2011 amendment, effective May 13, 2011, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, in subsection (a), substituted "enacted" for "amended" and inserted "as amended by" in the middle.

- For article commenting on the 1997 amendment of this Code section, see 14 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 313 (1997).

The provisions in Chapters One through Eleven of this Title resulted from an overall revision of Chapters One through Eleven of former OCGA Title 53 that became effective on January 1, 1998. Substantive variations from the former law are noted in the Comments to each section. Modifications in the language of former Code sections, which were made where appropriate for clarity or modernization, are not noted in the Comments.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Application of Revised Probate Code.

- Subsequently-enacted legislation which stated that if an administrator was not appointed within five years after the death of an intestate, then the estate property would be vested in decedent's heirs, and which did not mention anything about divestment of the estate property, did not apply to prevent the probate court from granting the estate administrator's petition to distribute decedent's property even though the estate administrator was not appointed for nearly four decades after the death of the decedent, as the law in effect at the time the estate administrator was appointed had no time limit for the appointment and the subsequently-enacted legislation did not apply to prohibit the estate administrator from being appointed and distributing the property. Williams v. Williams, 259 Ga. App. 888, 578 S.E.2d 582 (2003).

Cited in In re Estate of Ehlers, 289 Ga. App. 14, 656 S.E.2d 169 (2007); Huggins v. Powell, 293 Ga. App. 436, 667 S.E.2d 219 (2008); In re Estate of Wade, 331 Ga. App. 535, 771 S.E.2d 214 (2015).

8C Am. Jur. Pleading and Practice Forms, Dower and Curtesy, § 1.