§ 9-3-95.Disability of one or more with joint right of action; effect of severability

Some claims belong to more than one person jointly — a single, undivided right of action rather than several individual ones. When that is true and even one joint owner is under a disability described in O.C.G.A. § 9-3-90 (intellectual disability, mental illness, or minority), the limitations period for the entire joint claim does not run at all, for anyone, until every disability among the joint owners is removed. One protected person shields the whole claim.

That protection has a limit tied to whether the underlying right can be divided. If the action is severable — meaning each person could instead bring a separate suit for his or her own share — the rule changes. Co-owners free of any disability lose their protection once the ordinary limitations period runs out, even though a disabled co-owner’s claim survives. Only the shares belonging to people under disability keep the benefit of tolling.

The distinction turns on whether the parties hold one claim together or separate, divisible claims that happen to arise from the same facts. Courts and litigants need to know which kind of claim they are dealing with before they can tell whether a disability held by only one owner protects everybody or just that one person’s share.