2020 Georgia Code
Title 53 - Wills, Trusts, and Administration of Estates
Chapter 4 - Wills
Article 5 - Revocation and Republication
§ 53-4-50. Republication of Revoked Will

A revoked will may be republished by a writing executed by the testator and subscribed and attested by witnesses with the same formality required for a will.

(Code 1981, §53-4-50, enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10.)

- For annual survey of law of wills, trusts, guardianships, and fiduciary administration, see 56 Mercer L. Rev. 457 (2004).

This section revises former OCGA Sec. 53-2-77 by limiting the methods of republishing a will to a republication by a writing that satisfies the formalities for executing a will. This Code section also supplements Code Sec. 53-4-45 by providing an alternative means of reinstating a will that was expressly revoked by a written instrument that itself was later revoked.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Editor's notes.

- In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, decisions under former Code 1933, § 113-409, are included in the annotations for this Code section.

When alterations in a will occur, the law presumes, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the alterations were made after the execution of the will. Hicks v. Rushin, 228 Ga. 320, 185 S.E.2d 390 (1971) (decided under former Code 1933, § 113-409).

- Under O.C.G.A. § 53-4-50, a decedent could have revoked a later will by a codicil that referred to an earlier will. But as the codicil was attached to the later will, the appellees offered parol evidence stating that the codicil's reference to the later will was a scrivener's error, and the appellants offered no evidence in response, the appellees were entitled to summary judgment on their claim that the later will and codicil together constituted the decedent's last will and testament. Dyess v. Brewton, 284 Ga. 583, 669 S.E.2d 145 (2008).

Cited in Cubbedge v. Cubbedge, 287 Ga. App. 149, 650 S.E.2d 805 (2007).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 79 Am. Jur. 2d, Wills, §§ 597, 606 et seq.

- 95 C.J.S., Wills, §§ 431 et seq., 437 et seq.

- Codicil as affecting application of statutory provision to will, or previous codicil not otherwise subject, or as obviating objections to lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence, or defective execution otherwise fatal to will, 87 A.L.R. 836.

Retrospective application of statute concerning execution of wills, 111 A.L.R. 910.

Admissibility of declarations by testator on issue of revocation of will, 172 A.L.R. 354.

Codicil as validating will or codicil which was invalid or inoperative at time of its purported execution, 21 A.L.R.2d 821.

Codicil as reviving revoked will or codicil, 33 A.L.R.2d 922.

Codicil as reviving or satisfied, bequest or devise, 58 A.L.R.2d 1072.

Revocation of will as affecting codicil and vice versa, 7 A.L.R.3d 1143.