2021 Georgia Code
Title 9 - Civil Practice
Chapter 12 - Verdict and Judgment
Article 3 - Dormancy and Revival of Judgments
§ 9-12-60. When Judgment Becomes Dormant; How Dormancy Prevented; Docketing; Applicability

1. A judgment shall become dormant and shall not be enforced:
   1. When seven years shall elapse after the rendition of the judgment before execution is issued thereon and is entered on the general execution docket of the county in which the judgment was rendered;
   2. Unless entry is made on the execution by an officer authorized to levy and return the same and the entry and the date thereof are entered by the clerk on the general execution docket within seven years after issuance of the execution and its record; or
   3. Unless a bona fide public effort on the part of the plaintiff in execution to enforce the execution in the courts is made and due written notice of such effort specifying the time of the institution of the action or proceedings, the nature thereof, the names of the parties thereto, and the name of the court in which it is pending is filed by the plaintiff in execution or his attorney at law with the clerk and is entered by the clerk on the general execution docket, all at such times and periods that seven years will not elapse between such entries of such notices or between such an entry and a proper entry made as prescribed in paragraph (2) of this subsection.
2. The record of the execution made as prescribed in paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of this Code section or of every entry as prescribed in paragraph (2) or (3) of subsection (a) of this Code section shall institute a new seven-year period within which the judgment shall not become dormant, provided that when an entry on the execution or a written notice of public effort is filed for record, the execution shall be recorded or rerecorded on the general execution docket with all entries thereon. It shall not be necessary in order to prevent dormancy that such execution be entered or such entry be recorded on any other docket.
3. When an entry on an execution or a written notice of public effort is filed for record and the original execution is recorded in a general execution docket other than the current general execution docket, the original execution shall be rerecorded in the current general execution docket with all entries thereon. When an original execution is so rerecorded, a notation shall be made upon the original execution which states that it has been rerecorded and gives the book and page number where the execution has been rerecorded. When an original execution is so rerecorded in the current general execution docket, it shall be indexed in the current general execution docket in the same manner as if it were an original execution. Nothing in this subsection shall affect the priority of any judgment or lien; and no judgment or lien shall lose any priority because an execution is rerecorded.
4. The provisions of subsection (a) of this Code section shall not apply to judgments or orders for child support or spousal support.

(Laws 1823, Cobb's 1851 Digest, p. 498; Ga. L. 1855-56, p. 233, § 8; Code 1863, § 2855; Code 1868, § 2863; Code 1873, § 2914; Code 1882, § 2914; Ga. L. 1884-85, p. 95, § 1; Civil Code 1895, §§ 3761, 3762, 3763; Ga. L. 1910, p. 121, § 1; Civil Code 1910, §§ 4355, 4356, 4357; Ga. L. 1920, p. 81, §§ 1, 3; Code 1933, § 110-1001; Ga. L. 1955, p. 417, § 1; Ga. L. 1965, p. 272, § 1; Ga. L. 1984, p. 22, § 9; Ga. L. 1984, p. 912, § 1; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1613, § 2.)

- For article commenting on the 1997 amendment of this Code section, see 14 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 121 (1997). For note discussing the procedure for the issuance and amendment of a writ of execution, see 12 Ga. L. Rev. 814 (1978). For comment as to applicability of dormancy and revival statutes to alimony judgments, in light of Bryant v. Bryant, 232 Ga. 160, 205 S.E.2d 223 (1974), see 26 Mercer L. Rev. 356 (1974).

ANALYSIS

• General Consideration
• Entry on Execution
• Enforcement of Execution

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Recording of second nulla bona on tax execution.

- In recording the second nulla bona on a tax execution, the execution should be recorded together with entries of both the first and second nulla bonas thereon. 1960-61 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 489.

- Tax lien is created by the issuance of a tax execution, or writ of fieri facias, and such lien exists for seven years but not against innocent bona fide purchasers for value while the execution is unrecorded; entry of the execution upon the general execution docket revives the lien for an additional seven-year period and is effective against all subsequent purchasers, dating from such entry or recording; a nulla bona entry made prior to the expiration of the seven-year period on such execution would revive the lien but only if such entry is also entered or reentered, as the case may be, upon the execution docket or other books upon which executions and entries are required to be entered or reentered. 1969 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 69-114.

As to cancellation of security deeds and writs of execution from record, see 1972 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U72-79.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 46 Am. Jur. 2d, Judgments, § 385 et seq.

- 49 C.J.S., Judgments, § 851 et seq.

- Death of one of two or more judgment creditors under a joint judgment as affecting judgment, 100 A.L.R. 814; 122 A.L.R. 752.

Construction, application, and effect of statutory provision for revival of judgment on failure of title of purchaser at execution sale, 115 A.L.R. 549.

Counterclaim or setoff as defense to proceeding to revive judgment, 131 A.L.R. 802.

Matters antecedent to, or contemporaneous with, entry of judgment, as defense to proceeding or action to revive it, 138 A.L.R. 863.

Failure to revive judgment against a number jointly, as to some of them, as making applicable the rule that a release of one is a release of all, 160 A.L.R. 678.

Ancillary proceedings as suspending or removing bar of statute of limitations as to judgment, 166 A.L.R. 767.