(See Editor's notes.) Powers and Duties Generally

1. Law
2. Georgia Code
3. Public Officers and Employees
4. Notaries Public
5. General Provisions
6. (See Editor's notes.) Powers and Duties Generally

1. Notaries public shall have authority to:
   1. Witness or attest signature or execution of deeds and other written instruments;
   2. Take acknowledgments;
   3. Administer oaths and affirmations in all matters incidental to their duties as commercial officers and all other oaths and affirmations which are not by law required to be administered by a particular officer;
   4. Witness affidavits upon oath or affirmation;
   5. Take verifications upon oath or affirmation;
   6. Make certified copies, provided that the document presented for copying is an original document and is neither a public record nor a publicly recorded document certified copies of which are available from an official source other than a notary and provided that the document was photocopied under supervision of the notary; and
   7. Perform such other acts as they are authorized to perform by other laws of this state.
2. No notary shall be obligated to perform a notarial act if he feels such act is:
   1. For a transaction which the notary knows or suspects is illegal, false, or deceptive;
   2. For a person who is being coerced;
   3. For a person whose demeanor causes compelling doubts about whether the person knows the consequences of the transaction requiring the notarial act; or
   4. In situations which impugn and compromise the notary's impartiality, as specified in subsection (c) of this Code section.
3. A notary shall be disqualified from performing a notarial act in the following situations which impugn and compromise the notary's impartiality:
   1. When the notary is a signer of the document which is to be notarized; or
   2. When the notary is a party to the document or transaction for which the notarial act is required.
4. A notary public shall not execute a notarial certificate containing a statement known by the notary to be false nor perform any action with an intent to deceive or defraud.
5. In performing any notarial act, a notary public shall confirm the identity of the document signer, oath taker, or affirmant based on personal knowledge or on satisfactory evidence.
6. The signature of a notary public documenting a notarial act shall not be evidence to show that such notary public had knowledge of the contents of the document so signed, other than those specific contents which constitute the signature, execution, acknowledgment, oath, affirmation, affidavit, verification, or other act which the signature of that notary public documents, nor is a certification by a notary public that a document is a certified or true copy of an original document evidence to show that such notary public had knowledge of the contents of the document so certified.

(Ga. L. 1863-64, p. 58, § 2; Code 1863, § 1451; Code 1868, § 1508; Code 1873, § 1502; Code 1882, § 1502; Civil Code 1895, § 503; Civil Code 1910, § 621; Code 1933, § 71-108; Ga. L. 1947, p. 1108, § 1; Ga. L. 1984, p. 1105, § 1; Ga. L. 1986, p. 1446, §§ 5, 6; Ga. L. 1987, p. 1113, § 1.)

Code Commission notes.

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1986, "acknowledgments" was substituted for "acknowledgements" in paragraph (a)(2).

For application of this statute in 2020, see Executive Order 04.09.20.01.

A listing of Executive Orders issued in 2020 can be found at https://gov.georgia.gov/executive-action/executive-orders/2020-executive-orders.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Authority to attest affidavits.

- At one time there appears to have been doubt as to the power of notaries to attest affidavits in this state. It was removed by the Act of 1863, codified in this section. That statute, however, was properly in part declaratory of a power already recognized. Simpson v. Wicker, 120 Ga. 418, 47 S.E. 965, 1 Ann. Cas. 542 (1904).

An affidavit to require bail in trover may be made before a notary public. Jowers v. Blandy, 58 Ga. 379 (1877).

An affidavit is sufficient as a basis for framing an accusation in a criminal court, although made before a commercial notary public; the question remains, however, whether such an affidavit would furnish a sufficient foundation for the issuance of an arrest warrant. Mitchell v. State, 126 Ga. 84, 54 S.E. 931 (1906).

Notaries public do not have authority to administer the oath required for an affidavit on which a dispossessory warrant is issued. Young v. Cowles, 128 Ga. App. 770, 197 S.E.2d 864 (1973).

Action not requiring a seal.

- In attesting an affidavit in forma pauperis, accompanying a bill of exceptions, a notary public need not fix a seal, since it is not such a material act, under this section, as requires a seal for its authentication. Collins v. State, 206 Ga. 95, 55 S.E.2d 599 (1949).

Notary also signing will as witness.

- It was error to grant summary judgment to a caveator in a will contest in which the first of three witnesses signed both as a witness and as a notary. Even if the first witness did not intend to act as a witness, if the first witness and a second witness signed the will in the decedent's presence, then O.C.G.A. § 53-4-20(b), requiring two witnesses, was satisfied even if a third witness signed outside the decedent's presence; furthermore, although O.C.G.A. § 45-17-8(c)(1) disqualified a witness from also acting as a notary, the first witness's disqualification as a notary was immaterial because the will was not a self-proving one requiring a notary. Land v. Burkhalter, 283 Ga. 54, 656 S.E.2d 834 (2008).

Conflict of interest disqualifies notaries.

- Having established themselves as active officers and spokespersons for a recall effort, notaries public became more than generally interested electors. Hence, any recall petition pages with affidavits notarized by the notaries or either of them were properly disregarded. Howell v. Tidwell, 258 Ga. 246, 368 S.E.2d 311 (1988).

A notary who circulated part of a nominating petition and also signed the petition was disqualified from notarizing circulators' affidavits on the petition, and it was proper to disqualify those pages with affidavits notarized by such person. Poppell v. Lanier, 264 Ga. App. 473, 448 S.E.2d 194 (1994).

Disqualification of notary.

- An affidavit, probating a mortgage, taken before the attorney of the mortgagee, who is a notary public, is not a legal affidavit, and a mortgage recorded on such probate is not legally recorded. Nichols v. Hampton, 46 Ga. 253 (1872).

No private civil cause of action.

- Bank did not have a viable civil cause of action under the notary statute against an attorney who allegedly falsely attested that guarantee agreements were signed in the attorney's presence as, even when combined with the general statutory principles of tort law, notaries had a duty to the public that did not support an actionable claim. Branch Banking & Trust Co. v. Morrisroe, 323 Ga. App. 248, 746 S.E.2d 859 (2013).

Cited in Dalton City Co. v. Haddock, 54 Ga. 584 (1875); Wright v. Davis, 120 Ga. 670, 48 S.E. 170 (1904); Shuler v. State, 125 Ga. 778, 54 S.E. 689 (1906); Singletary v. Watson, 136 Ga. 241, 71 S.E. 162 (1911); Peters v. Hyatt Legal Servs., 211 Ga. App. 587, 440 S.E.2d 222 (1993); Lewy v. Beazley, 270 Ga. 11, 507 S.E.2d 721 (1998); Sambor v. Kelley, 271 Ga. 133, 518 S.E.2d 120 (1999).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

A wife who is a notary may witness her husband's signature. 1970 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U70-213.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

1A Am. Jur. Pleading and Practice Forms, Acknowledgments, § 2.

ALR.

- Proof of identity upon which officer certifying to an acknowledgment is justified in acting, 10 A.L.R. 871.

Right of notary who protests paper to change or contradict his certificate, 28 A.L.R. 543.

Sufficiency of certificate of acknowledgment, 29 A.L.R. 919.

Measure of damages for false or incomplete certificate by notary public, 13 A.L.R.3d 1039.

Disqualification of attorney, otherwise qualified, to take oath or acknowledgment from client, 21 A.L.R.3d 483.

Admissibility, in action against notary public, of evidence as to usual business practice of notary public of identifying person seeking certificate of acknowledgment, 59 A.L.R.3d 1327.

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