Adult children often step in when a parent’s physical condition declines. They handle meals, medications, bathing, rides, and late-night calls. Families rarely treat that work like a job until the parent dies and the estate plan leaves the caregiver out.

In Georgia, an adult child may assert a quantum meruit claim, which seeks payment for the reasonable value of services when no written contract exists.

Quantum Meruit Basics in Georgia

Georgia law recognizes an implied promise to pay when one person provides valuable services, and the other accepts the benefit. O.C.G.A. § 9-2-7 codifies that general rule.

Family relationships complicate the analysis. The same statute warns that the implied-payment presumption “does not usually arise” between very near relatives. That language reflects a practical concern: Families do favors every day, and courts do not want every act of care to turn into an estate debt.

Proving an Implied Promise to Pay

A caregiver-child must do more than show hard work. Georgia’s decisions look for facts that show both sides understood that compensation would happen. In one Court of Appeals case, the court stated that the surrounding circumstances must plainly indicate an intent to pay for services provided to a close relative. Another case applied the same idea and emphasized the lack of evidence that the decedent intended to pay a close family member for help.

Helpful proof often includes:

  • Specific conversations about payment, reimbursement, or “making it right” through the estate
  • A pattern of prior payments for similar help
  • Third-party witnesses who heard the parent acknowledge a debt
  • Records that show hours, tasks, and costs the caregiver covered

Courts weigh credibility. They also look closely at whether the family treated the arrangement like employment or like ordinary family support.

Talk Through Your Options With Our Team

Quantum meruit operates like creditor claims in probate. Georgia requires written notice of a claim to the personal representative, and the statutory notice-to-creditors process affects deadlines and priority in distribution. If you miss key probate timelines, you can lose leverage even if the underlying facts help you.

If caregiving created real, uncompensated value and the estate dispute sits in Georgia, we can help you assess whether a quantum meruit theory fits the evidence and the probate timeline. Call The Williams Litigation Group at 1-866-214-7036 or use our contact form.