GA Code § 44-14-101 (2021)
2021 Georgia Code|Title 44 - Property|Chapter 14 - Mortgages, Conveyances to Secure Debt, and Liens|Article 4 - Security Agreements Relating to Crops|§ 44-14-101. Crops as Personalty

 All matured or unmatured crops are declared to be personalty.   (Ga. L. 1922, p. 114, §§ 1-3; Ga. L. 1933, p. 128, §§ 1, 2; Code 1933, §§ 85-1901, 85-1902, 85-1903; Ga. L. 2001, p. 362, § 35.)    The 2001 amendment,  effective July 1, 2001, deleted subsection (a) which read: "As used in this Code section, the term 'crops' means the fruits and products of all annual and perennial plants, trees, and shrubs and the crude gum, oleoresin, from a living tree." and redesignated the former provisions of subsection (b) as this Code section.   Law reviews.   - For article, "Timber Transactions in Georgia," see 19 Ga. B.J. 413 (1957). For article, "Things Attached to Realty," see 15 Mercer L. Rev. 343 (1964).   JUDICIAL DECISIONS    Prior to O.C.G.A. § 44-14-101, growing crops still attached to soil were part of realty, and a purchaser of the land obtained title to both the land and the crops. Hix v. Williams, 42 Ga. App. 143, 155 S.E. 355 (1930).   Section applies to fruits and products, not plants themselves.    - O.C.G.A. § 44-14-101 applies only to the fruits and products of plants, trees, and shrubs and do not refer to the plants, trees, and shrubs themselves. Adcock v. Berry, 194 Ga. 243, 21 S.E.2d 605 (1942); Newton v. Allen, 220 Ga. 681, 141 S.E.2d 417 (1965); Marshall v. Georgia Power Co., 134 Ga. App. 479, 214 S.E.2d 728 (1975).   Section refers to mature crops, not nursery stock.    - O.C.G.A. § 44-14-101 refers to crops that mature, and does not include a nursery or nursery stock attached to and growing in the soil. Adcock v. Berry, 194 Ga. 243, 21 S.E.2d 605 (1942).    O.C.G.A. § 44-14-101 does not embrace as personalty a nursery or nursery stock consisting of plants, trees, and shrubs, attached to and growing in the soil. Adcock v. Berry, 194 Ga. 243, 21 S.E.2d 605 (1942).   Security deed conveying cultivated land does not include crops.    - A security deed executed under O.C.G.A. §§ 44-14-60 and44-14-61,44-14-63,44-14-66,44-14-67, after the passage of O.C.G.A. § 44-14-101, to convey cultivated farm land as security for debt, does not ordinarily comprehend crops matured or unmatured on the land. Penn Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Larsen, 178 Ga. 255, 173 S.E. 125 (1934).   Purchaser acquires landlord's interest in crops where rented to tenant.    - Although O.C.G.A. § 44-14-101, making all crops personalty, does not affect the rule that the purchaser of the land acquires the landlord's interest in the crops in cases where the land is rented to a tenant, this rule does not mean that where land is not rented out by the owner, the one who acquires title by deed or otherwise, gets the title to the crops planted or growing thereon. King v. Tilley, 69 Ga. App. 561, 26 S.E.2d 293 (1943).    Party who becomes owner of rented land before maturity of crops is entitled to recover rent. Neal v. Hubbard, 53 Ga. App. 267, 185 S.E. 384 (1936).   Cropper and landlord both have right of action for wrongful destruction of crops.    - Cropper has such an interest in crops, even though not all have matured and contract has not been fully completed by cropper, as would support an action against one who wrongfully destroyed them, which right of action is joint and several with that of the landlord who likewise has an interest in the crops. Thombley v. Hightower, 52 Ga. App. 716, 184 S.E. 331 (1936).   Writing which leases trees for turpentine is lease of realty.    - A writing which purports to lease trees for turpentine purposes, not merely the product thereof, is a lease of realty, and does not constitute a contract for the sale of personalty under O.C.G.A. T. 11. Newton v. Allen, 220 Ga. 681, 141 S.E.2d 417 (1965).    Illegal marijuana is not part of realty and thus can be considered in the possession of a defendant cultivating it. Carney v. State, 134 Ga. App. 816, 216 S.E.2d 617 (1975).    Crop of pecans is personalty, and does not pass as part of the realty by the sale and conveyance of the land in pursuance of a power expressed in the security deed. Miller v. Jackson, 190 Ga. 668, 10 S.E.2d 35 (1940).   Crop-growing land is realty but unmatured crops are personalty.    - A patch of ground, whether described as a melon patch, a strawberry patch, or any other sort of patch, is necessarily realty. But an unmatured crop growing thereon, as an unmatured melon crop, is, under O.C.G.A. § 44-14-101, personalty. Kitchens v. Brassell, 42 Ga. App. 332, 155 S.E. 905 (1930).   "Melon patch" is both ground and melon crop growing on it.    - A melon patch is not only the ground constituting the patch, but is the ground together with the melon crop growing thereon. Kitchens v. Brassell, 42 Ga. App. 332, 155 S.E. 905 (1930).   Damage to melon patch means damage to melon crop.    - Damage whether "on" or "to" a melon patch must necessarily be damage affecting the melon crop which is an essential constituent of the melon patch. Kitchens v. Brassell, 42 Ga. App. 332, 155 S.E. 905 (1930).    Damage to unmatured melon crop growing upon melon patch is damage to personalty, and an action to recover for damage to such crop, whether it is an action ex contractu for the value of the crop, or portion thereof taken and converted, or is an action ex delicto for a sum representing damage to the crop, is not an action for damage to realty. Kitchens v. Brassell, 42 Ga. App. 332, 155 S.E. 905 (1930).   Damage to "melon patch."    - Damage to a patch, or to a patch which is of the descriptive character of a melon patch, is, insofar as the damage is to the patch alone, damage to realty, yet damage to a "melon patch," where the expression "melon patch" is indicative of a melon crop growing on the patch of ground, is a damage to the crop of melons, and to that extent is necessarily a damage to personalty. Kitchens v. Brassell, 42 Ga. App. 332, 155 S.E. 905 (1930).    Cited in Schnedl v. Langford, 40 Ga. App. 190, 149 S.E. 102 (1929); Paul v. Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co., 50 Ga. App. 762, 178 S.E. 926 (1935); Courson v. Land, 54 Ga. App. 534, 188 S.E. 360 (1936); Chastain v. Gardner, 187 Ga. 462, 200 S.E. 786 (1939); Bivins v. State, 64 Ga. App. 689, 13 S.E.2d 874 (1941); King v. Tilley, 69 Ga. App. 561, 26 S.E.2d 293 (1943); Evans v. Looney, 86 Ga. App. 79, 70 S.E.2d 801 (1952).   OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL    Pecans are both crops and personalty under O.C.G.A. § 44-14-101. 1971 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U71-41.   RESEARCH REFERENCES   Am. Jur. 2d.   - 6 Am. Jur. 2d, Attachment and Garnishment, §§ 104-106, 329, 330, 335. 21 Am. Jur. 2d, Crops §§ 1, 3. 63 Am. Jur. 2d, Property, §§ 19, 21.   C.J.S.   - 7 C.J.S., Attachment, § 181. 25 C.J.S., Crops, § 1. 73 C.J.S., Property, § 21.   ALR.    - Right to crops sown or grown by one wrongfully in possession of land, 39 A.L.R. 958; 57 A.L.R. 584.    Judicial or execution sale of realty as affecting debtor's share in crops grown by tenant or cropper, 113 A.L.R. 1355.    Nursery stock attached to the soil as real or personal property, and resulting rights, 125 A.L.R. 1406.    Growing crops as part of land or as a chattel asset, in farm debtor proceedings under Bankruptcy Act, 150 A.L.R. 1175.   Rights in growing, unmatured annual crops as between personal representatives of decedent's estate and heirs or devisees, 92 A.L.R.2d 1373.