2020 Georgia Code
Title 53 - Wills, Trusts, and Administration of Estates
Chapter 7 - Administration of Estates Generally
Article 1 - Powers and Duties Generally
§ 53-7-5. (For Effective Date, See note.) Powers, Duties, and Liabilities if More Than One Personal Representative; Safe Deposit Boxes or Receptacles

1. If more than one personal representative is qualified and unless the will provides otherwise:
   1. The personal representatives must act by their unanimous action; provided, however, that while a personal representative is unable to act because of inaccessibility, illness, or other incapacity, or when a vacancy occurs for any other reason, the remaining personal representatives may act as if they were the only personal representatives if necessary to administer the estate; and
   2. (For effective date, see note.) The personal representatives may delegate in writing to one or more of them the authority to act for all of them; provided, however, that such delegation must satisfy the requirements of Code Sections 10-6B-5 and 10-6B-40, and that all the personal representatives remain liable for the actions of the personal representative who is authorized to act.
2. If more than one personal representative is qualified and unless the will provides otherwise, a personal representative is liable for a breach committed by another personal representative:
   1. By participating in a breach of fiduciary duty committed by the other personal representative;
   2. By approving, knowingly acquiescing in, or concealing a breach of fiduciary duty committed by the other personal representative;
   3. By negligently enabling the other personal representative to commit a breach of fiduciary duty; or
   4. By neglecting to take reasonable steps to compel the other personal representative to redress a breach of fiduciary duty in a case where the personal representative knows or reasonably should have known of the breach of trust.
3. (For effective date, see note.) When safe-deposit boxes or receptacles are leased or rented to fiduciaries, including executors, administrators, guardians, trustees, custodians, receivers, and the like, the fiduciary or fiduciaries, as lessee or renter, may authorize the entering of the box or receptacle by one or fewer than all of them or by any other person without the presence or consent of the fiduciary or fiduciaries. Upon receipt of the written authorization, the bank or lessor may without liability authorize access to the box or receptacle in accordance with such authorization. Upon cancellation of the authorization, the bank or lessor may require the presence of all lessees or renters for access.

(Code 1981, §53-7-5, enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10; Ga. L. 2020, p. 377, § 1-37/HB 865.)

- Procedure for opening safe-deposit box when depositor dies or becomes incompetent, § 7-1-356.

- For article on the problems and benefits of multiple fiduciaries in estate planning, see 33 Mercer L. Rev. 355 (1981).

Subsections (a) and (b) replace former OCGA Secs. 53-7-5 and 53-7-6 and change the law by requiring that personal representatives act unanimously unless the personal representative is acting under a will that indicates otherwise. These subsections are modeled after two sections of Title 53 dealing with the actions of cotrustees: OCGA Secs. 53-12-172 and 53-12-196. Because it conflicts with this new requirement of unanimous action, former OCGA Sec. 53-2-110 is repealed. Subsection (c) carries forward former OCGA Sec. 53-6-2.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Beneficiaries of estate had standing to bring claim.

- Trial court's denial of a sister's motion to dismiss an action by siblings, seeking to set aside quitclaim deeds that the parties' father had executed in favor of the sister, was proper because the siblings, as heirs at law and beneficiaries of the estate, were proper parties to have brought the action pursuant to O.C.G.A. §§ 53-7-2 and53-7-5(a) when it was clear that the co-executors, one of whom was the sister, were not going to bring the claim; there was no abandonment of the claim against the property despite the signing by the co-executors of a federal estate tax return under O.C.G.A. § 53-7-45, as the tax return was due and any changes based on rights to the property could have been set forth in an amended return. Field v. Mednikow, 279 Ga. App. 380, 631 S.E.2d 395 (2006).

- Under O.C.G.A. § 53-7-5(b), the probate court was not prohibited from holding one of multiple executors who committed or individually benefitted from the breach of a duty to a devisee primarily liable for the breach. LaFavor v. LaFavor, 282 Ga. App. 753, 639 S.E.2d 633 (2006).

Cited in In re Estate of Wade, 331 Ga. App. 535, 771 S.E.2d 214 (2015).