Section 44-14-340. Lien for farming supplies, equipment and other items furnished tenant; operation of law or special contract; enforcement; duty to inform; priorities

   Landlords furnishing supplies, money, horses, mules, asses, oxen, farming utensils, and equipment necessary to make crops shall have the right to secure themselves from the crops raised during the year in which such things are furnished upon such terms as may be agreed upon by the parties but with the following conditions:

   (1) The liens provided for in this Code section shall arise by operation of law from the relationship of landlord and tenant as well as by a special contract in writing whenever the landlord shall furnish the articles enumerated in this Code section or any of them to the tenant for the purposes named. The liens may be enforced in the manner provided in Code Section 44-14-550;

   (2) Whenever the liens are created by a special contract in writing, they shall be assignable by the landlord and may be enforced by the assignees in the manner provided for the enforcement of such liens by landlords;

   (3) The liens shall only exist as liens on the crops raised during the year in which they are made and may be foreclosed before the debt is due if the tenant is removing or seeking to remove his crops from the premises or when other legal process, not in favor of the landlord nor controlled by him nor levied at his instance or procurement, is being enforced against the crops;

   (4) Every person giving a lien under this Code section who has previously given a lien or liens under it or any other lien shall, when giving a new lien under this Code section on the same property to another person, inform such person, if asked, as to the facts of the amount of such lien or liens and to whom given; and

   (5) The liens created under this Code section are declared to be superior in rank to other liens and shall, as between themselves and other liens not excepted by this paragraph, rank according to date; but they shall be inferior to liens for taxes, the general and special liens of laborers, and the special liens of landlords for rent.

Ga. L. 1873, p. 42, §§ 5, 6; Code 1873, § 1978, Ga. L. 1874, p. 18, § 1; Ga. L. 1875, p. 20, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 1878-79, p. 47, § 1; Code 1882, § 1978; Ga. L. 1890-91, p. 72, § 1; Ga. L. 1895, p. 26, § 1; Civil Code 1910, § 3348; Code 1933, § 61-202; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 44.