---
title: O.C.G.A. § 53-9-20. Presumption or proof of death.
collection: code
id: 53-9-20
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 53-9-20 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-9-20
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-9-20.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-9-20/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=719
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/53-9.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-9-16.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/53-9-21.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: WILLS, TRUSTS, AND ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES / MISSING PERSONS AND PERSONS BELIEVED TO BE DEAD / NONDOMICILIARIES
---

# O.C.G.A. § 53-9-20. Presumption or proof of death.

If an individual who is domiciled outside this state and possessed of any interest in or claim to or against real or personal property or cause of action located in this state shall have been absent for a period of time under circumstances whereby, pursuant to the law of the place in which the individual is domiciled, the individual is presumed to be dead, and a court of competent jurisdiction in the place of domicile has entered a final order or decree that the individual is presumed to be dead, the provisions of this title shall apply in every respect as if the individual in fact had died. If the individual shall have been absent for a period of not less than four years and shall not have been declared dead in the domiciliary jurisdiction, the individual may be declared dead in this state pursuant to the provisions of Article 1 of this chapter, as if a domiciliary of this state, for purposes of the property interests or claims or causes of action located in this state.

## History

Code 1981, § 53-9-20, enacted by Ga. L. 1996, p. 504, § 10.