---
title: O.C.G.A. § 53-4-11. Decided and rational desire; incapacity to contract; insanity; advanced age or eccentricity.
collection: code
id: 53-4-11
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 53-4-11 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-4-11
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-4-11.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-4-11/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t52-t53-(v40)-2021-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=d23ba203_0#page=341
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: WILLS, TRUSTS, AND ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES / WILLS / TESTAMENTARY CAPACITY
---

# O.C.G.A. § 53-4-11. Decided and rational desire; incapacity to contract; insanity; advanced age or eccentricity.

(a) Testamentary capacity exists when the testator has a decided and rational desire as to the disposition of property.

(b) An incapacity to contract may coexist with the capacity to make a will.

(c) An insane individual generally may not make a will except during a lucid interval. A monomaniac may make a will if the will is in no way connected with the monomania. In all such cases, it must appear that the will expresses the wishes of the testator unbiased by the insanity or monomania with which the testator is affected.

(d) Neither advancing age nor weakness of intellect nor eccentricity of habit or thought is inconsistent with the capacity to make a will.

## History

Code 1981, § 53-4-11, enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10.

## Cross References

Capacity of parties to enter into contracts, § 13-3-20 et seq.

## Law Reviews

For article, ‘‘The Georgia Law of Insanity,’’ see 3 Ga. B.J. 28 (1941). For survey article on wills, trusts, guardianships, and fiduciary administration, see 59 Mercer L. Rev. 447 (2007).

For note discussing early development of rules governing capacity to make will in Georgia, see 24 Ga. B.J. 257 (1961).