2022 Georgia Code
Title 53 - Wills, Trusts, and Administration of Estates
Chapter 3 - Year’s Support
§ 53-3-6. Issuance of Citation and Publication of Notice; Mailing of Petition to Tax Commissioner

1. As used in this Code section, the term “interested persons” means the decedent’s children, spouse, other heirs, beneficiaries, and creditors and any others having a property right in or claim against the estate of the decedent that may be affected by the year’s support proceedings.
2. Upon the filing of the petition, the probate court shall issue a citation and publish a notice in the official newspaper of the county in which the petition is made once a week for four weeks, citing all interested persons to show cause by a date certain why the petition for year’s support should not be granted.
3. 1. If there is a personal representative of the decedent’s estate, then, in addition to the issuance of citation and publication of notice required by subsection (b) of this Code section, the probate court shall cause a copy of the citation to be served upon the personal representative of the decedent’s estate. The personal representative shall be served not fewer than 30 days prior to the date and time for objections to be filed shown in the citation.
   2. If there is no personal representative of the decedent’s estate, then, in addition to the issuance of citation and publication of notice required by subsection (b) of this Code section, the petitioner or the attorney for the petitioner shall file with the probate court an affidavit, upon oath, showing the name, last known address, and age if less than age 18 of each interested person and stating that the petitioner or the attorney for the petitioner has listed all known interested persons and has made reasonable inquiry to ascertain the names, last known addresses, and ages of all interested persons. The probate court shall serve by first-class mail a copy of the citation on each interested person shown on the affidavit not fewer than 30 days prior to the date and time shown in the citation for objections to be filed.
   3. If the sole personal representative of the decedent’s estate and the petitioner or the guardian of the petitioner are the same person, then paragraph (2) of this subsection shall govern as if the decedent’s estate had no personal representative.
4. The probate court shall serve by first-class or interoffice mail, as applicable, a copy of the petition within five days of its filing on the tax commissioner or tax collector of any county in this state in which real property proposed to be set apart as year’s support is located.

History. Code 1981, § 53-3-6 , enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10; Ga. L. 1998, p. 1586, § 14; Ga. L. 2020, p. 377, § 1-7/HB 865; Ga. L. 2022, p. 352, § 53/HB 1428.

The 2020 amendment, effective January 1, 2021, in subsection (a), substituted “ ‘interested persons’ ” for “ ‘interested person’ ”, “and creditors” for “creditors,”, and substituted “that” for “which”; in subsection (b), inserted “in the official newspaper of the county in which the petition is made”, substituted “interested persons” for “persons concerned”, and substituted “date” for “day”; in paragraph (c)(1), in the first sentence, substituted “issuance of citation and publication of notice” for “citation and notice” and substituted “served upon” for “sent by mail to” and in the second sentence, substituted “personal representative shall be served not fewer than 30 days” for “copy of the citation shall be mailed not less than 21 days” and inserted “for objections to be filed”; in paragraph (c)(2), substituted “issuance of citation and publication of notice” for “citation and notice” in the first sentence, in the second sentence, inserted “serve by first-class”, substituted “on” for “to”, substituted “fewer” for “less”, substituted “30” for “21”, and inserted “for objections to be filed”; and in subsection (d), substituted “serve by first class or interoffice mail, as applicable,” for “mail”, substituted “on” for “to”, and inserted “as year’s support”.

The 2022 amendment, effective May 2, 2022, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, substituted “date and time shown in the citation for objections to be filed.” for “date and time for objections to be filed shown in the citation.” at the end of paragraph (c)(2).

Code Commission notes.

Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1996, the second enacted version of subsection (c) was redesignated as subsection (d).

Law reviews.

For article discussing decisions involving the year’s support provision of the Georgia Code, see 3 Ga. St. B.J. 427 (1967).

For article surveying wills, trusts, and administration of estates, see 34 Mercer L. Rev. 323 (1982).