Cite as 906 F.3d 1229 (11th Cir. 2018)
er materials.” O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1 (emphasis added). This language is telling. In various dictionaries, the word “merge” is defined as meaning to combine or unite, often in such a way that the constituent elements of the merger lose their distinct identity or characteristics and become one. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language defines “merge” as “to lose or cause to lose identity by uniting or blending” and “to combine or unite into a single unit.” Random House Dictionary of the English Language 550 (1980). Similarly, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines “merge” as “to become combined into one” and to “lose identity by absorption or intermingling.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1414 (1981). And the Oxford English Dictionary variously defines “merge” as “to be absorbed and disappear, to lose character or identity by absorption into something else; to join or blend,” and “to combine to form a single entity.” Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed. 2001). The use of the word “merge” thus carries with it strong connotations of unification or combination of disparate elements into a single whole in which the previously distinct attributes of each element become intermingled and shared.
The question then becomes, what is the nature of the new thing created when the Georgia General Assembly explicitly chose to merge the annotations with statutory text? Here too Georgia law supplies an answer. In particular, Georgia law provides that the merged text “shall be published by authority of the state … and when so published shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Official Code of Georgia Annotated.’” O.C.G.A. § 1-1-1. Thus, the product of the merger is an official state publication, labelled and cited as the authoritative embodiment of the laws of the State of Georgia.
It of course remains true that portions of the OCGA clearly carry the force of law while O.C.G.A. § 1-1-7 disclaims any legal effect in the annotations. Yet the significance of the legislature’s decision to “merge” these two things into a single edict remains. The Georgia legislature was not required to merge the annotations with the statutes in order to create the OCGA, which it then stamped with the imprimatur of the State. But the bicameral legislature chose to do so. By combining these two components into a unified whole, their attributes have been intermingled and their distinct character altered. While this does not mean that the annotations, by virtue of appearing alongside statutory text, are suddenly possessed of binding legal effect, it does mean that their combination with the statutory text imbues them with an official, legislative quality.
The statutory text, having been merged with these legislatively authored expositions on the meaning of Georgia law, must be read in pari materia with them. The annotations’ combination with the statutes means that any understanding of the statutory text arrived at without reference to the annotations is axiomatically incomplete. Because Georgia law tells us that the official codification of Georgia statutes contains not only statutory text but also annotations that have been combined and unified with the statutory text into a single edict, a full understanding of the laws of Georgia necessarily includes an understanding of the contents of the annotations. In this way, the annotations are clearly laden with legal significance.
Their significance is strengthened further by the legislature’s decision to label the unified whole “Official.” The OCGA is not simply one of a number of competing annotated codifications of Georgia laws. It does not stand on equal footing with West’s annotated Georgia code. Rather, it is the official codification of Georgia laws, stamped with the imprimatur of the state.
