Section 46-3-174. Filing of documents with Secretary of State; filing of articles of correction

   (a) Whenever this article requires any document to be delivered for filing as provided in this article, unless otherwise specifically stated in this article and subject to any additional provisions of this article, such requirement shall mean that:

   (1) The original executed document, together with a conformed copy thereof, shall be delivered to the office of the Secretary of State;

   (2) All fees required for filing the document shall be tendered to the Secretary of State;

   (3) Upon delivery of the documents, and upon tender of the required fees, the Secretary of State shall certify that the original has been filed in his office by endorsing upon the original the word "filed" and the hour, day, month, and year thereof. Such endorsement shall be known as the filing date of the document and shall be conclusive of the date of filing in the absence of actual fraud. The Secretary of State shall thereafter file and index the original;

   (4) The Secretary of State shall immediately compare the conformed copy with the original; and, if he finds that they are identical, he shall certify the conformed copy by making upon it the same endorsement which is required to appear upon the original, together with a further endorsement that the conformed copy is a true copy of the original document;

   (5) The conformed copy, so certified, shall be returned to the person or persons delivering the documents to the Secretary of State or to the designee of such person or persons; and it shall be retained as part of the permanent records of the electric membership corporation or foreign electric cooperative.

(b) Whenever any document authorized to be filed with the Secretary of State under this article has been so filed and contains errors in, inaccuracies in, or omissions of information required by this article, is an inaccurate record of the action therein referred to, or was defectively or erroneously executed or sealed, such document may be corrected by filing articles of correction with the Secretary of State. The articles of correction shall specify the error, inaccuracy, omission, or defect to be corrected and shall set forth the portion of the document in corrected form. Except as set forth in subsection (c) of this Code section, the procedure for filing articles of correction shall be the same as would be required under this article for filing the document being corrected. The corrected document shall be effective as of the effective date of the original document, except as to those persons who are substantially and adversely affected by the correction; and, as to those persons, the corrected document shall be effective from the filing date of the articles of correction.

(c) No fee shall be payable to the Secretary of State for filing the articles of correction. The filing of the articles of correction as authorized in subsection (b) of this Code section shall not require the republication of any notice previously published in connection with the filing of the original document unless the error, inaccuracy, omission, or defect in the original document relates to information which was disclosed in the notice. In the event the error, inaccuracy, omission, or defect in the original document relates to information disclosed in the notice, a new notice shall be published in the same manner as the original publication. The publisher's fee for republication shall be the same as the fee for the original publication.

Code 1933, § 34C-105, enacted by Ga. L. 1981, p. 1587, § 1.