---
title: O.C.G.A. § 19-3-42. Effect on marriage due to the lack of authority in person officiating.
collection: code
id: 19-3-42
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 19-3-42 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/19-3-42
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/19-3-42.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/19-3-42/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t18-t19-(v16)-2022-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=b0848ebd_0#page=349
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.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/19-3.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/19-3-41.1.md
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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: DOMESTIC RELATIONS / MARRIAGE GENERALLY / LICENSE AND CEREMONY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 19-3-42. Effect on marriage due to the lack of authority in person officiating.

A marriage which is valid in other respects and supposed by the parties to be valid shall not be affected by want of authority in the minister, Governor or any former Governor of this state, judge, city recorder, magistrate, or other person to solemnize the same; nor shall such objection be heard from one party who has fraudulently induced the other to believe that the marriage was legal.

## History

Orig. Code 1863, § 1667; Code 1868, § 1708; Code 1873, § 1709; Code 1882, § 1709; Civil Code 1895, § 2423; Civil Code 1910, § 2492; Code 1933, § 53-213; Ga. L. 1983, p. 884, § 4-1; Ga. L. 2010, p. 394, § 3/SB 238.

## Law Reviews

For comment, “By the Power Vested in Me? Licensing Religious Officials to Solemnize Marriage in the Age of Same-Sex Marriage,” see 63 Emory L.J. 979 (2014).