2020 Georgia Code
Title 7 - Banking and Finance
Chapter 1 - Financial Institutions
Article 7 - Building and Loan Associations and Savings and Loan Associations
§ 7-1-790. Deposits of Fiduciaries
A savings and loan association may receive deposits in the name of an administrator, executor, guardian, trustee, or other fiduciary in trust for a named or an unnamed beneficiary or beneficiaries. Such a deposit and dividends or interest thereon or other rights relating thereto may be paid or delivered, in whole or in part, to such fiduciary or may be exercised by such fiduciary without regard to any notice to the contrary so long as such fiduciary is living and until the association has received notice of the death of such fiduciary. The payment or delivery to any such fiduciary or a receipt or acquittance signed by any such fiduciary, to whom any such payment or any such delivery of rights is made, shall be a valid and sufficient release and discharge of such association for the payment or delivery so made.
(Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p. 307, § 16; Code 1933, § 41A-3522, enacted by Ga. L. 1974, p. 705, § 1; Ga. L. 2016, p. 390, § 7-4/HB 811.)
Code Commission notes.- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2016, "a" was deleted preceding "savings and loan association" in the first sentence.
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Legislative intent.
- See Bank S. v. Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons, 174 Ga. App. 777, 331 S.E.2d 629 (1985).
Applicability to banks.
- In an action by children against a bank for accepting custodial certificates of deposit as collateral for their custodian's personal loan, the provision of O.C.G.A. § 7-1-790 creating a presumption that a fiduciary was acting in a lawful manner consistent with the fiduciary's duties applied to shield the bank from liability. Grogan v. Lanier Bank & Trust Co., 219 Ga. App. 313, 464 S.E.2d 892 (1995).
Bank challenge of trustee's withdrawals.
- Bank is under no duty to challenge a trustee's withdrawal of trust funds merely because the amount withdrawn is large or for cash. Bank S. v. Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons, 174 Ga. App. 777, 331 S.E.2d 629 (1985).
Summary judgment in suit for mishandling trust.
- Although there was a genuine issue of fact whether a savings and loan association had knowledge of the court order requiring court permission before encroaching upon the corpus of a trust, it was not a material fact because, even if the association had such knowledge, it was permitted by O.C.G.A. § 7-1-790 to pay out the funds on the order of the trustee under the presumption that the trustee was acting in compliance with duties as a fiduciary; therefore, summary judgment was properly granted in favor of the association in the beneficiaries' suit for mishandling of the trust. Chelena v. Georgia Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 256 Ga. 336, 349 S.E.2d 180 (1986).
RESEARCH REFERENCES
ALR.
- Liability of bank where funds deposited in account of trustee, agent, or other fiduciary, as such, are transferred to his personal account and misappropriated, 145 A.L.R. 445.
