2021 Georgia Code
Title 45 - Public Officers and Employees
Chapter 17 - Notaries Public
Article 1 - General Provisions
§ 45-17-10. Notary's Authority in Relation to Attachment, Garnishment, or Dispossessory Action
It shall not be lawful for notaries public to issue attachments or garnishments, to approve bonds for the purpose of issuing attachments or garnishments, or to issue a summons in a dispossessory case; but a notary may attest an affidavit in an attachment, garnishment, or dispossessory action; provided, however, no writ or summons in said matter shall issue without first having judicial approval as provided by law.
(Ga. L. 1893, p. 117, § 1; Civil Code 1895, § 504; Civil Code 1910, § 622; Code 1933, § 71-109; Ga. L. 1947, p. 1108, § 1; Ga. L. 1984, p. 1105, § 1; Ga. L. 1986, p. 1446, § 8.)
Code Commission notes.- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1986, a comma was inserted following "to issue attachments or garnishments".
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Garnishment proceedings.
- An affidavit, as the basis for the issuance of the summons of garnishment, subscribed to before a notary public, is defective, and the garnishment proceedings are thereby rendered void ab initio. Thompson v. Reynolds Auto Co., 31 Ga. App. 574, 121 S.E. 528 (1924).
When garnishment or attachment affidavits are subscribed to before unauthorized persons, the proceedings are void ab initio rendering judgments based thereon likewise void. Jenkins v. Community Loan & Inv. Corp., 120 Ga. App. 543, 171 S.E.2d 654 (1969).
Use of void affidavit as testimony.
- Although an affidavit is void as an affidavit verifying the petition for attachment, the judge can consider the affidavit as "testimony," and, if sufficient for this purpose, grant the attachment. Price v. Cohen, Son & Co., 118 Ga. 261, 45 S.E. 225 (1903).
Cited in Kazakos v. Soteres, 120 Ga. App. 258, 170 S.E.2d 50 (1969); Marietta Broadcasting Co. v. Advance Mktg. Research, Inc., 231 Ga. 13, 200 S.E.2d 134 (1973).
