2022 Georgia Code
Title 9 - Civil Practice
Chapter 4 - Declaratory Judgments
§ 9-4-4. Declaratory Judgments Involving Fiduciaries

1. Without limiting the generality of Code Sections 9-4-2, 9-4-3, 9-4-5 through 9-4-7, and 9-4-9, any person interested as or through an executor, administrator, personal representative, trustee, guardian, conservator, or other fiduciary, creditor, devisee, distributee, legatee, heir, next of kin, or beneficiary in the administration of a trust or of the estate of a decedent, a minor, a ward, an incapacitated person, a protected person, a person who is otherwise legally incompetent because of mental illness or intellectual disability, or an insolvent may have a declaration of rights or legal relations in respect thereto and a declaratory judgment:
   1. To ascertain any class of creditors, devisees, legatees, heirs, next of kin, beneficiaries, or others;
   2. To direct the executor, administrator, trustee, or other fiduciary to do or abstain from doing any particular act in his or her fiduciary capacity;
   3. To determine title to property in which the trust or estate has or is purported to have an ownership or other interest; or
   4. To determine any question arising in the administration of the estate or trust, including questions of construction of wills, trust instruments, and other writings.
2. The enumeration in subsection (a) of this Code section does not limit or restrict the exercise of general powers conferred in Code Section 9-4-2 in any proceeding covered thereby where declaratory relief is sought in which a judgment or decree will terminate the controversy or remove the uncertainty.

History. Ga. L. 1945, p. 137, §§ 7, 8; Ga. L. 2015, p. 385, § 4-15/HB 252; Ga. L. 2020, p. 377, § 2-4/HB 865.

The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, substituted “intellectual disability” for “mental retardation” in the introductory language of subsection (a).

The 2020 amendment, effective January 1, 2021, rewrote subsection (a), which read: “(a) Without limiting the generality of Code Sections 9-4-2, 9-4-3, 9-4-5 through 9-4-7, and 9-4-9, any person interested as or through an executor, administrator, trustee, guardian, or other fiduciary, creditor, devisee, legatee, heir, ward, next of kin, or beneficiary in the administration of a trust or of the estate of a decedent, a minor, a person who is legally incompetent because of mental illness or intellectual disability, or an insolvent may have a declaration of rights or legal relations in respect thereto and a declaratory judgment:

“(1) To ascertain any class of creditors, devisees, legatees, heirs, next of kin, or others;

“(2) To direct the executor, administrator, or trustee to do or abstain from doing any particular act in his fiduciary capacity; or

“(3) To determine any question arising in the administration of the estate or trust, including questions of construction of wills and other writings.”

Editor’s notes.

Ga. L. 2015, p. 385, § 1-1/HB 252, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘J. Calvin Hill, Jr., Act.’ ”