Georgia § 18-4-23 - Grounds for relief from liability.

§ 18-4-23. Grounds for relief from liability.

A garnishee may be relieved from liability for failure to file a garnishee answer if the plaintiff failed to provide the information required by paragraph (2) of subsection (b) of Code Section 18-4-7 that would reasonably enable the garnishee to respond properly to the summons of garnishment and a good faith effort to locate the requested property was made by the garnishee based on the information provided by the plaintiff. In determining whether a garnishee may be relieved of liability, the court shall consider any information or circumstances, including but not limited to accuracy and quantity of the information supplied by the plaintiff pursuant to paragraph (2) of subsection (b) of Code Section 18-4-7, the manner in which such garnishee maintains and locates its records, the compliance by such garnishee with its own procedures, and the conformity of the record systems and procedures with reasonable commercial standards prevailing in the area in which such garnishee is located. A garnishee shall not be subject to liability to any party or nonparty to the garnishment at issue arising from the attachment of a lien or the freezing, payment, or delivery into court of money or other property reasonably believed to be that of the defendant if such attachment, freezing, payment, or delivery is reasonably required by a good faith effort to comply with the summons of garnishment or with a modification of continuing garnishment by use of the form in Code Section 18-4-90. In determining whether such compliance by a garnishee is reasonable, the court shall consider any information or circumstances, including but not limited to the accuracy and quantity of the information supplied by the plaintiff pursuant to paragraph (2) of subsection (b) of Code Section 18-4-7, the manner in which such garnishee maintains and locates its records, the compliance by such garnishee with its own procedures, and the conformity of the record systems and procedures with reasonable commercial standards prevailing in the area in which such garnishee is located. A plaintiff shall not be subject to liability to any party or nonparty to the garnishment at issue arising from the attachment of a lien or the freezing, payment, or delivery into court of money or other property by a garnishee where the plaintiff's summons of garnishment and any attachments thereto include identifying information reasonably believed to be that of the defendant or defendants in the judgment upon which the garnishment is based. A garnishee shall not be liable to any party or nonparty to the garnishment at issue arising from the attachment of a lien or the freezing, payment, or delivery into court of money or other property where such liability is based on any allegation disputing, or subsequent determination denying, the validity of such garnishment as described in subsection (d) of Code Section 18-4-7. As used in this subsection, the term: "Association account" means any account or safe-deposit box or similar property maintained by a corporation, statutory close corporation, limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, foundation, trust, national, state, or local government or quasi-government entity, or other incorporated or unincorporated association. "Fiduciary account" means any account or safe-deposit box maintained by any party in a fiduciary capacity for any other party other than the defendant in garnishment. Without limiting the foregoing, such term shall include any trust account as defined in Code Section 7-1-810 , any account created pursuant to a transfer governed by Code Section 44-5-119 , and any agency account or safe-deposit box governed by a power of attorney or other written designation of authority. A garnishee shall not be liable for failure to pay or deliver to the court money or other property in an association account that may be subject to garnishment by reason of the fact that a defendant is an authorized signer on such association account, unless the summons of garnishment alleges that the association account is being used by the defendant for an improper or unlawful purpose. A garnishee shall not be liable for failure to pay or deliver to the court money or other property in a fiduciary account that may be subject to garnishment if such fiduciary account specifically is exempted from garnishment as set forth in Code Section 18-4-6 . A garnishee shall not be liable for failure to pay or deliver to the court money or other property in a fiduciary account that may be subject to garnishment by reason of the fact that a defendant is a fiduciary of the fiduciary account, unless the summons of garnishment is against the defendant in the defendant's capacity as a fiduciary of the fiduciary account or the summons of garnishment alleges that the fiduciary account is being used by the defendant for an improper or unlawful purpose. (Code 1981, § 18-4-23 , enacted by Ga. L. 2016, p. 8, § 1/SB 255; Ga. L. 2020, p. 691, § 17/SB 443.) The 2020 amendment, effective January 1, 2021, in subsections (a) and (b), substituted "Code Section 18-4-7," for "Code Section 18-4-7 with"; substituted "any information or circumstances, including but not limited to" for "and compare the" in the second sentence of subsection (a); in subsection (b), deleted "and a plaintiff" preceding "shall not", added "or with a modification of continuing garnishment by use of the form in Code Section 18-4-90", and substituted "any information or circumstances, including but not limited to" for "and compare"; added subsections (c) and (d); and redesignated former subsection (c) as present subsection (e).