§ 13-4-103. Acceptance of Less Than Amount of Debt

1. Except as otherwise provided in this Code section, an agreement by a creditor to receive less than the amount of his debt cannot be pleaded as an accord and satisfaction unless it is actually executed by the payment of the money, the giving of additional security, the substitution of another debtor, or some other new consideration.
2. Acceptance by a creditor of a check, draft, or money order marked “payment in full” or with language of equivalent condition, in an amount less than the total indebtedness, shall not constitute an accord and satisfaction unless:
   1. A bona fide dispute or controversy exists as to the amount due; or
   2. Such payment is made pursuant to an independent agreement between the creditor and debtor that such payment shall satisfy the debt.

History. Orig. Code 1863, § 2822; Code 1868, § 2830; Code 1873, § 2881; Code 1882, § 2881; Civil Code 1895, § 3735; Civil Code 1910, § 4329; Code 1933, § 20-1204; Ga. L. 1979, p. 1051, § 1.

History of Code section.

This Code section is derived in part from the decision in Evans v. Pollock, 1 Ga. Dec. 33 (1842).

Law reviews.

For comment on Doniger and Co. v. Briggs, 61 Ga. App. 699 , 7 S.E.2d 321 (1940), see 4 Ga. B.J. 50 (1942).

For comment on Rivers v. Cole Corp., 209 Ga. 406 , 73 S.E.2d 573 (1952), see 15 Ga. B.J. 339 (1953).

For article discussing the anachronistic nature of the Georgia Contracts Code as dramatized by comparing the doctrine of consideration as it is formulated in the Restatements of Contracts and in Code 1933, Title 20 (now this title), and the interpretative approach Georgia courts have taken in dealing with such Code, see 13 Ga. L. Rev. 499 (1979).

For article surveying recent legislative and judicial developments in Georgia’s real property laws, see 31 Mercer L. Rev. 187 (1979). (But see amendments by Ga. L. 1981, p. 876.)

For article, “Construction Law,” see 53 Mercer L. Rev. 173 (2001).