---
title: O.C.G.A. § 23-2-51. Fraud as actual or constructive.
collection: code
id: 23-2-51
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 23-2-51 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/23-2-51
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/23-2-51.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/23-2-51/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t22-t23-(v19)-2020-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=a1dfc71e_0#page=344
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/23-2.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: EQUITY / GROUNDS FOR EQUITABLE RELIEF / FRAUD
---

# O.C.G.A. § 23-2-51. Fraud as actual or constructive.

(a) Fraud may be actual or constructive.

(b) Actual fraud consists of any kind of artifice by which another is deceived. Constructive fraud consists of any act of omission or commission, contrary to legal or equitable duty, trust, or confidence justly reposed, which is contrary to good conscience and operates to the injury of another.

(c) Actual fraud implies moral guilt; constructive fraud may be consistent with innocence.

## History

Orig. Code 1863, § 3104; Code 1868, § 3116; Code 1873, § 3173; Code 1882, § 3173; Civil Code 1895, § 4025; Civil Code 1910, § 4622; Code 1933, § 37-702.

## Law Reviews

For case note, ‘‘Lynch v. Waters: Tolling Georgia’s Statute of Limitations for Medical Malpractice,’’ see 38 Mercer L. Rev. 1493 (1987).