Georgia Code
Article 2 - Capacity of Parties
§ 13-3-20. Minors — Contracts for Property or Valuable Consideration; Contracts for Necessaries

History. Ga. L. 1858, p. 58, § 1; Code 1863, §§ 2691, 2693; Code 1868, §§ 2687, 2689; Code 1873, §§ 2729, 2731; Code 1882, §§ 2729, 2731; Civil Code 1895, §§ 3647, 3648; Civil Code 1910, §§ 4232, 4233; Code 1933, § 20-201; Ga. L. 1966, p. 291, § 1; Ga. L. 1969, p. 640, § 1; Ga. L. 1972, p. 193, § 2; Ga. L. 2006, p. 141, § 3/HB 847; Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 4-3/HB 242.
The 2013 amendment, effective January 1, 2014, substituted “Article 10” for “Article 6” in the last sentence of subsection (a) and near the end of subsection (b). See Editor’s notes for applicability.
Code Commission notes.
Ga. L. 1972, p. 193, § 10, effective July 1, 1972, provided that the purpose of the Act was to reduce the age of legal majority from 21 years of age to 18 years of age so that all persons, upon reaching the age of 18, would have the rights, privileges, powers, duties, responsibilities, and liabilities previously applicable to persons 21 years of age or over. The section further provided that the Act was not to be construed to have the effect of changing the age from 21 to 18 with respect to any legal instrument or court decree in existence prior to the effective date of the Act when the instrument referred only to “the age of majority” or words of similar import, except that any guardianship of the person or property of a minor under the provisions of Title 49 of the 1933 Code, whether such guardianship was created by court order or decree entered before or after the effective date of the Act or under the will of a testator which was executed after the effective date of the act, would terminate when the ward for whom such guardianship was created reached 18 years of age.
History of Code section.
This Code section is derived from the decision in Strain v. Wright, 7 Ga. 568 (1849), and Hood v. Buren, 33 Ga. App. 203 , 125 S.E. 787 (1924).
Cross references.
Rights of minors generally, § 1-2-8 .
Minority as a contractual defense, § 13-5-3 .
Voidable nature of conveyance of property or interest to or by minor, § 44-5-41 .
Editor’s notes.
Ga. L. 2013, p. 294, § 5-1/HB 242, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: “This Act shall become effective on January 1, 2014, and shall apply to all offenses which occur and juvenile proceedings commenced on and after such date. Any offense occurring before January 1, 2014, shall be governed by the statute in effect at the time of such offense and shall be considered a prior adjudication for the purpose of imposing a disposition that provides for a different penalty for subsequent adjudications, of whatever class, pursuant to this Act. The enactment of this Act shall not affect any prosecutions for acts occurring before January 1, 2014, and shall not act as an abatement of any such prosecutions.”
Law reviews.
For article discussing, “Voidability of Minors’ Contracts: A Feudal Doctrine in a Modern Economy,” see 1 Ga. L. Rev. 205 (1967).
For article recommending more consistency in age requirements of laws pertaining to the welfare of minors, see 6 Ga. St. B.J. 189 (1969).
For article discussing the anachronistic nature of the Georgia contracts Code as dramatized by comparing the doctrine of consideration as it is formulated in the Restatements of Contracts and in Code 1933, Title 20 (now this title), and the interpretative approach Georgia courts have taken in dealing with such Code, see 13 Ga. L. Rev. 499 (1979). (But see amendments by Ga. L. 1981, p. 876.)
For article on 2006 amendment of this Code section, see 23 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 79 (2006).

Structure Georgia Code