City of Milton v. Chang - Municipal Liability for Road Defects

Supreme Court of Georgia Kathleen Joyner, Public Information Officer 330 Capitol Ave, SE Atlanta, Georgia 30334 404-651-9385 joynerk@gasupreme.us SUMMARIES OF OPINIONS Published Thursday, March 12, 2026 Please note: Opinion summaries are prepared by the Public Information Office for the general public and news media. Summaries are not prepared for every opinion released by the Court, but only for those cases considered of particular public interest. Opinion summaries are not to be considered as official opinions of the Court. The full opinions are available on the Supreme Court website at www.gasupreme.us. CITY OF MILTON v. CHANG et al. (S25G0476) The Supreme Court of Georgia has vacated lower court decisions in a lawsuit filed against the City of Milton, claiming it was liable for the death of Joshua Chang, who was killed in November 2016 when his vehicle left the road and collided with a large, concrete planter on the shoulder of Batesville Road. Chang’s parents, John Chang and Rebecca Zhu, filed the underlying lawsuit against the city in Fulton County State Court. The plaintiffs claimed that the City of Milton was negligent in failing to remove the planter, an alleged “defect” in the public roads, and that the planter was a nuisance for which the city was liable. A jury found the city liable for negligence and nuisance and awarded Chang’s parents more than $32.5 million in damages. The city appealed, arguing that the plaintiffs’ claims were barred by sovereign immunity and that they had not presented sufficient evidence to support their nuisance claim. The Court of Appeals of Georgia—the state’s intermediate appellate court—affirmed the trial court’s ruling, reasoning that the city’s sovereign immunity had been waived by its negligence in performing the ministerial duty of keeping city streets in a reasonably safe condition for travel [Georgia Code § 36-33-1(b)]. The Court of Appeals further reasoned the planter was in the public road

because of its placement in the right-of-way of a city-owned street and that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to determine that the planter constituted a defect of which the city had notice [Georgia Code § 32-4-93(a)]. The Supreme Court granted the city’s petition for certiorari to address the interplay between certain statutes having to do with municipal liability when someone sues a city for negligence that causes injuries on city streets [Georgia Code § 36-33-1(b) and Georgia Code § 32-4-93(a)]. The Court heard oral arguments in the case on Oct. 21, 2025. Today’s majority opinion, authored by Justice Andrew A. Pinson, has concluded that Georgia Code § 32-4-93(a), which limits municipal liability for negligence claims for “defects in the public roads,” does not waive municipal immunity for such claims. And while Georgia Code § 36-33-1(b)waives a municipal immunity with respect to a municipality’s ministerial duties, the ministerial duty in relation to a road-defect negligence claim “is limited to keeping streets and sidewalks safe for ordinary travel on the parts of the street or sidewalk intended for such travel—that is, in the lanes of travel.” “This duty does not extend to keeping property outside the lanes of travel safe for traversal in case of an accident or emergency,” Justice Pinson writes. Because there is no evidence in the record that the grassy areas where the planter sat, about six feet to the side of the paved road, was on a part of the city street intended for ordinary travel by the public, Chang “neither encountered nor suffered injury from an obstruction while engaging in ordinary travel on a part of the street intended for such travel,” the majority opinion states. Therefore, the municipal immunity for the plaintiffs’ road-defect negligence claim in this case is not waived [under Georgia Code § 36-33-1(b)]. A dissenting opinion, authored by Justice Verda M. Colvin and joined by Justice John J. Ellington, takes a different view of whether the City of Milton’s municipal immunity was waived in this case by Georgia Code § 36-33-1(b). “The City of Milton had a ministerial duty to keep its streets reasonably safe for ordinary travel, and, in my view, our precedent provides that this duty encompassed all portions of the street ‘over which the public ha[s] a right to pass,’” Justice Colvin writes. “It is undisputed that the planter at issue in this case was located in the shoulder of Batesville Road, an area in which the public had a right to travel. It follows that Chang’s negligence claim implicated Milton’s ministerial duties, and so OCGA § 36-33-1(b) waived the City’s municipal immunity as to Chang’s claim.” Today’s majority opinion notes the limited scope of the Supreme Court’s binding decision regarding municipal immunity. The majority opinion does not reach any decisions related to whether any other potential waiver of municipal immunity applies in this case, the city’s general duty of care, or to the nuisance claim. [Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson and Justice Benjamin A. Land are recused in this case.] Attorneys for Appellant (Milton): J. Scott Key, Harold D. Melton, Elizabeth P. Waldbeser, Rachel D. Hendrix Attorneys for Appellees (Chang et al.): Jed D. Manton, Jeffrey R. Harris, Madeline E. McNeeley, Christopher M. Simon, Tyler H. Bridgers, Naveen Ramachandrappa

Amicus Curiae in Support of the Appellant (Georgia Transmission Corporation): Fred D. Bentley, Jr., Coleen D. Hosack, B. Chan Caudell Amicus Curiae in Support of the Appellant (Georgia Power Company and AT&T): T. Joshua R. Archer, M. Anne Kaufold-Wiggins, Meghan E. Pieler, Thurston H. Webb Amicus Curiae in Support of the Appellant (Georgia Municipal Association, Inc.): Rusi Patel, Ryan Bowersox Amicus Curiae in Support of the Appellant (Atlanta Gas Light Company): Robert S. Highsmith, Jr., A. André Hendrick, Laura E. Flint, Kristen M. Vigilant Amicus Curiae in Support of the Appellant (Georgia Electric Membership Corp.): Avery S. Jackson Amicus Curiae in Support of the Appellant (International Municipal Lawyers Association): Thomas M. Mitchell, Cullen B. Threlkeld, J. Anderson Davis, Christopher D. Balch Amicus Curiae in Support of the Appellant (City of Fairburn): Rory K. Starkey, LaTonya Nix Wiley, Vincent D. Hyman Amicus Curiae in Support of the Appellant (Cities of Alpharetta, Acworth, Marietta, Albany, Americus, Berkeley Lake, Lilburn, Blakely, Shellman, Bogart, Brunswick, Calhoun, Canton, Holly Springs, Cedartown, Chamblee, Decatur, Chattahoochee Hills, Cleveland, College Park, Lake City, Columbus, Conyers, Cumming, Dawsonville, Dahlonega, Dalton, Douglasville, Dublin, Duluth, Dunwoody, East Point, Hampton, Palmetto, Riverdale, Fayetteville, Flowery Branch, Tucker, Gainesville, Good Hope, Griffin, Brooklet, Guyton, Springfield, Hapeville, Locust Grove, Johns Creek, Stone Mountain, Kennesaw, LaGrange, Lawrenceville, Mableton, McDonough, Monroe, Warner Robins, Mountain Park, White, Nashville, Valdosta, Newnan, Norcross, Tyrone, Union City, Peachtree City, Senoia, Pine Lake, Pooler, Roswell, Rutledge, Winder, Woodstock, Smyrna, Dasher, St. Marys, Statesboro, Sugar Hill, Suwanee, Peachtree Corners, Thomasville, Tifton, Toomsboro, Tybee Island, Villa Rica, Whitesburg, Sandy Springs): Ken Jarrard, Douglas Haynie, Michael M. Custer, James M. Skipper, Jr., Richard A. Carothers, Franklin “Tommy” Coleman, III, Mike Pruett, Brian Corry, George P. Govignon, Robert M. “Bobby” Dyer, Carey Pilgrim, Irene B. Vander Els, Richard Lindsey, Keith Whitaker, Winston Denmark, James Clark, Jr., Carrie L. Bootcheck, Kevin Tallant, J. Douglas Parks, Jonathan L. Bledsoe, Miranda Jordan, Duke Groover, Stephen Pereira, Kenneth Bernard, Jr., L’Erin Barnes Wiggins, Patrick Jaugstetter, Ted Baggett, Abbott S. Hayes, Jr., R. Michael Malcolm, Andrew J. Whalen, III, Benjamin M. Perkins, Andrew Welch, III, Angela C. Couch, Fred Bentley, Jr., Jeffrey Todd, V. Lee Thompson, Emilia Walker-Ashby, Paul Rosenthal, Julia Mize, Brandon Bowen, Timothy M. Tanner, C. Bradford Sears, Jr., Bill Diehl, Dennis A. Davenport, Theodore P. Meeker, III, Christopher Balch, Craig A. Call, David Davidson, John A. Nix, Warren Tillery, Phillip Friduss, Scott Cochran, William A. Turner, Jr., Steven Blackerby, I. Cain Smith, Frank Hartley, Gregory D. Jay, David E. Rhodes, Timothy Sanders, Robert Wilmot, James Green, Edward Hughes, David Mecklin, Daniel Lee Amicus Curiae in Support of the Appellees (Georgia Trial Lawyers Association): Joshua A. Carroll, Seth A. Lowry ******************************************************************************

The Supreme Court of Georgia has upheld murder convictions and life prison sentences for: Michael Dawson (Fulton Co.) DAWSON v. THE STATE (S25A1307)* Jamel Gines (Fulton Co.) GINES v. THE STATE (S25A1305)* Dontravioius Mahone (Fulton Co.) MAHONE v. THE STATE (S25A1306)* **=These cases are related.