Here is the way it works.
ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court docket laid down what one Atlanta space lawyer described as a “vivid line” on how a lot you may get from a metropolis in damages if you happen to sue one.
In an opinion issued Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court docket sided with an insurance coverage firm in a dispute about how a lot an insurance coverage coverage held by the town of Faculty Park ought to cowl in a wrongful demise lawsuit over a police chase resulting in the deaths in 2016 of a grandmother and two kids.
At challenge was whether or not state legislation allowed for the town, by way of its insurance coverage coverage, to be held accountable for the deaths past a typical restrict established underneath a Georgia statute.
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Town had held a $5 million coverage, which legal professionals for the household argued waived the town’s skill to be held to a $700,000 cap of their case. That restrict is about underneath a Georgia legislation meant to function a typical waiver of sovereign immunity authorized provisions that may in any other case bar anybody from suing a metropolis in any respect. The cap varies by severity of incident.
Sovereign immunity is the authorized doctrine that principally holds a metropolis or state or nationwide authorities can’t be sued, until it permits for lawsuits ultimately. In Georgia the legislation is structured in order that native governments might be sued – however solely up for a sure sum of money.
What you may sue for
- $50,000 for property harm
- $500,000 for bodily damage or demise to at least one individual
- $700,000 for bodily damage or demise to 2 or extra individuals
Within the Faculty Park case, the insurance coverage firm argued that their coverage was solely designed to cowl the town past $700,000 on issues for which sovereign immunity didn’t apply. The Georgia Supreme Court docket agreed, holding that the mere existence of the coverage didn’t waive sovereign immunity past $700,000, overruling earlier selections by the unique trial court docket and Georgia Court docket of Appeals in favor of the $5 million determine.
That call has far-reaching implications for another situations wherein somebody may be suing a metropolis or county in Georgia.
Beforehand, Atlanta space lawyer Manny Arora mentioned legal professionals may go after a full insurance coverage coverage.
“Cities, police, all people else is protected against being sued – that’s typically the way it works,” he advised 11Alive’s Joe Henke about sovereign immunity. “There are exceptions to it. Our state legislature has given a $700,000 exception for misconduct that takes place or negligence. Nonetheless on this case they’d a $5 million coverage. Usually when you have a coverage above the $700,000, the person who has been wronged can ask for that complete quantity. However right this moment, the Supreme Court docket has mentioned something previous that $700,000 doesn’t apply on this case. Something above the $700,000 is roofed by the immunity that metropolis governments, police, all the things else get regardless of the extent of misconduct.”
Now the state Supreme Court docket has held that until a metropolis have been to someway have a coverage that particularly included a kind of misconduct – like a police chase gone flawed – there is no method to go above the bounds.
Arora mentioned it was a “vivid line rule put down.”
“Until that further insurance coverage is particularly for one thing they listed, such because the scenario like this in a automobile chase, a common insurance coverage coverage you may’t get after it,” he mentioned. “You are capped out at $700,000 whether or not it’s two folks, three folks or 50 those who died.”
He mentioned the Georgia Supreme Court docket weighing in so conclusively on the matter makes it “type of a landmark case.”
“The Supreme Court docket has mentioned this could have at all times been the principles, however traditionally legal professionals – if there was insurance coverage past $700,000 – have been in a position to get after it. However right this moment they made it clear until that further insurance coverage is particularly for one of these scenario, a common legal responsibility coverage isn’t going to cowl it,” he mentioned. “So sadly these three folks or their household aren’t going to have the ability to accumulate what I believe can be the total worth of the coverage.”
Arora added: “You might be just about capped out at $700,000 and the Supreme Court docket made that abundantly clear. We used to have the ability to sue for all the coverage restrict, however that has been shut down as of this opinion.”
The one method now for that to alter can be for the state legislature, the Georgia Common Meeting, to write down new legal guidelines.
