---
title: O.C.G.A. § 23-2-90. Legal and equitable assets defined; rules of distribution.
collection: code
id: 23-2-90
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 23-2-90 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/23-2-90
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/23-2-90.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/23-2-90/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=412
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
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/23-2-76.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/23-2-91.md
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 / ADMINISTRATION OF ASSETS GENERALLY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 23-2-90. Legal and equitable assets defined; rules of distribution.

(a) Assets are either legal or equitable. Legal assets are such as may be reached by the ordinary process of law. Equitable assets are such as can be reached only through the intervention of equity.

(b) Legal assets, when properly before the court, shall be distributed according to legal liens and priorities. Equitable assets shall be distributed according to justice and right in the particular case, the general rule being that equality is equity.

(c) Sometimes assets are partly legal and partly equitable. In such cases, while the above rule shall be adhered to as to the legal assets, equity shall so administer the equitable assets as to produce general equality.

## History

Orig. Code 1863, §§ 3073, 3074; Code 1868, §§ 3085, 3086; Code 1873, §§ 3142, 3143; Code 1882, §§ 3142, 3143; Civil Code 1895, §§ 3997, 3998; Civil Code 1910, §§ 4594, 4595; Code 1933, §§ 37-401, 37-402.