The Georgia Supreme Court gave a skeptical reception Tuesday to whether a county can use the legal doctrine of “sovereign immunity” to shield itself from a lawsuit filed by a city. In a case before the high court for the second time, the city of College Park is suing Clayton County in a dispute over the allocation of tax revenue from alcohol sales at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. A 1983 state law required the two governments to divide the proceeds equally, but College Park began to question that arrangement in 2007.
After the city obtained a legal opinion in 2014 that the county was collecting more than its legal share of taxes, the city demanded $2.5 million it claimed the county had collected wrongfully. When the county did not respond, the city filed a lawsuit. The case went through a lower court twice, each side prevailing once, before the state Supreme Court heard it in 2017. Rather than issue a definitive ruling, the justices declared the issue of whether a county can claim sovereign immunity from a lawsuit filed by a city was uncertain and sent it back to the trial court. In its third ruling on the case, the lower court sided with the county, prompting the city to appeal. On Tuesday, Amy Cowan, the lawyer representing Clayton County, argued sovereign immunity protects counties from lawsuits in the same way it protects the state. “Counties are political subdivisions of the state,” she said. “Cities are not. … They are creatures of the legislature.” Winston Denmark, City Attorney for the City of College Park, said the Georgia Supreme Court has never ruled on whether sovereign immunity in Georgia applies to cases involving two governments.
The only rulings the high court has issued decided the legal principle protects governments from lawsuits brought by corporations or individual citizens, he said. In questioning Cowan, Justice David Nahmias said in numerous Georgia cases and, before that, during centuries of English common law, cities have been permitted to sue other government entities. “If you can’t point to a single case anywhere in Georgia or in common law where sovereign immunity barred claims between two subdivisions of government, how can we for the first time find it here?” Justice Nels S.D. Peterson asked Cowan. A decision is expected within the next several months.
