---
title: O.C.G.A. § 16-9-58. Failing to pay for natural products or chattels.
collection: code
id: 16-9-58
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 16-9-58 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-9-58
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-9-58.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/16-9-58/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t16-ch7-11-(v14a)-2018-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=aecbfe9c_0#page=533
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CRIMES AND OFFENSES / FORGERY AND FRAUDULENT PRACTICES / FRAUD AND RELATED OFFENSES
extraction_warnings:
  - dehyphenation_unverified:watermel-ons
---

# O.C.G.A. § 16-9-58. Failing to pay for natural products or chattels.

Any person, either on his or her own account or for others, who with fraudulent intent shall buy cotton, corn, rice, crude turpentine, spirits of turpentine, rosin, pitch, tar, timber, pulpwood, Christmas trees, pine needles, horticultural crops, poultry and poultry products, cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, ratites, horses, mules, pecans, peaches, apples, watermelons, cantaloupes, or other products or chattels and fail or refuse to pay therefor within 20 days following receipt of such products or chattels or by such other payment due date explicitly stated in a written contract agreed to by the buyer and seller, whichever is later, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; except that if the value of the products or chattels exceeded $500.00 such person shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned for not less than one year nor more than five years.

## History

Ga. L. 1884-5, pp. 45, 52; Code 1933 § 5-9914 enacted by Code 1981, § 16-9-58, enacted by Ga. L. 1983, p. 485, § 2; Ga. L. 1995, p. 244, § 11; Ga. L. 2003, p. 369, § 1.

## Editor's Notes

The provisions of this Code section were previously enacted in substantially similar form by Ga. L. 1884-5, pp. 45 and 52. However, those provisions were not enacted as part of the original Code by the Code enactment Act (Ga. L. 1981, Ex. Sess., p. 8).