§ 9-12-134.Appeal or stay of foreign judgment; security for satisfaction

A debtor who is still fighting a judgment in the state where it was entered should not also have to fight execution on it in Georgia at the same moment. This section gives that debtor two distinct, mandatory paths to a stay.

The first path, in subsection (a), looks to the rendering state. If the debtor shows the Georgia court that an appeal from the foreign judgment is pending or will be taken, or that the rendering court has granted a stay of execution, and proves that the debtor has already furnished the security for satisfaction that the rendering state requires, the Georgia court must stay enforcement. That stay runs until the appeal concludes, the appeal deadline passes, or the rendering state’s stay of execution expires or is vacated — the Georgia stay tracks the foreign proceeding’s own timeline.

The second path, in subsection (b), looks instead to Georgia’s own law. If the debtor shows any ground on which a Georgia court would stay enforcement of one of its own judgments — including that an appeal is pending, will be taken, or the time to appeal has not run — the court must stay enforcement for an appropriate period and require the same security Georgia itself would require, under the security provisions of Code Section 5-6-46. Where subsection (a) borrows the rendering state’s own security requirement, subsection (b) substitutes Georgia’s.

A separate provision in subsection (c) covers guardianship and conservatorship orders from other states registered under Title 29’s procedure for those orders: nothing in subsection (a) or (b) blocks a court from taking the specific actions Georgia law elsewhere permits for those registered orders.