Coffee County School Dist. v. Snipes, A94A2635

• Court: United States Court of Appeals (Georgia)
• Citation: 454 S.E.2d 149,216 Ga.App. 293
• Docket Number: No. A94A2635,A94A2635
• Parties: , 98 Ed. Law Rep. 1073 COFFEE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. v. SNIPES.
• Decision Date: 30 January 1995

Page 149

454 S.E.2d 149 216 Ga.App. 293, 98 Ed. Law Rep. 1073 COFFEE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT et al.
v.
SNIPES. No. A94A2635. Court of Appeals of Georgia. Jan. 30, 1995.
Reconsideration Denied Feb. 14, 1995.
Certiorari Denied May 5, 1995.

[216 Ga.App. 297] Young, Clyatt, Thagard & Hoffman, F. Thomas Young, Sherry S. Harrell, Valdosta, for appellants.

Kenneth E. Futch, Jr., Blackshear, Jimmy J. Boatright, Alma, for appellee.

[216 Ga.App. 293] ANDREWS, Judge.

Appellee's five-year-old child fell while playing at school and severely fractured her elbow. On behalf of the child, appellee sued the Coffee County School District, Hierling, a school teacher, and Johnson, a paraprofessional teacher's aide. The individual defendants were employed by the school district and were in charge of the child's class [216 Ga.App. 294] at the time of the fall. The defendants moved for summary judgment on grounds that the school district was entitled to sovereign immunity and the individual defendants were entitled to official immunity. We granted the defendants' application for an interlocutory appeal from the trial court's denial of their motion for summary judgment.

Since the present cause of action accrued on August 30, 1991, this case is governed by the 1991 amendment to Art. I, Sec.

Page 150

II, Par. IX of the Georgia Constitution of 1983 applicable to causes of action accruing on or after January 1, 1991. Curtis v. Bd. of Regents, 262 Ga. 226, 416 S.E.2d 510 (1992). The 1991 amendment provides in part that: "(a) The General Assembly may waive the state's sovereign immunity from suit by enacting a State Tort Claims Act, in which the General Assembly may provide by law for procedures for the making, handling, and disposition of actions or claims against the state and its departments, agencies, officers, and employees, upon such terms and subject to such conditions and limitations as the General Assembly may provide.... (e) Except as specifically provided in this Paragraph, sovereign immunity extends to the state and all of its departments and agencies. The sovereign immunity of the state and its departments and agencies can only be waived by an Act of the General Assembly which specifically provides that sovereign immunity is thereby waived and the extent of such waiver." ¹

We conclude that the 1991 amendment extending sovereign immunity "to the state and all of its departments and agencies" includes county-wide school districts, such as the Coffee County School District, created pursuant to Art. VIII, Sec. V, Par. I of the 1983 Georgia Constitution and OCGA § 20-2-50. Like the counties within which they are created, such school districts are political subdivisions of the state entitled to the sovereign immunity extended to the state. Cotton States Mut. Ins. Co. v. Keefe, 215 Ga. 830, 834, 113 S.E.2d 774 (1960); Towns v. Suttles, 208 Ga. 838, 840, 69 S.E.2d 742 (1952); Pinion v. Walker County School Dist., 203 Ga. 99, 102-103, 45 S.E.2d 405 (1947); see Gilbert v. Richardson, 264 Ga. 744, 452 S.E.2d 476 (1994) (1991 amendment extends sovereign immunity to counties as political subdivisions of the state); compare City of Thomaston v. Bridges, 264 Ga. 4, 439 S.E.2d 906 (1994) (concluding that municipalities are not entitled to sovereign immunity under the 1991 amendment); Thomas v. Hosp. Auth. of Clarke County, 264 Ga. 40, 440 S.E.2d 195 (1994) (holding that a hospital authority is not an entity entitled to sovereign immunity).

Prior to the 1991 constitutional amendment, the Georgia Constitution[216 Ga.App. 295] of 1983 extended sovereign immunity to the state in language virtually identical to that used in the 1991 amendment. The pre-1991 sovereign immunity provisions...