Layer v. Barrow Cnty.
| Citation | 297 Ga. 871,778 S.E.2d 156 |
| Decision Date | 05 October 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. S15A0725.,S15A0725. |
| Parties | LAYER v. BARROW COUNTY et al. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
297 Ga. 871
778 S.E.2d 156
LAYER
v.
BARROW COUNTY et al.
No. S15A0725.
Supreme Court of Georgia.
Oct. 5, 2015.
Christopher Warren Conowal, Conowal, Welch, Womack, LLP, Gainesville, for appellant.
Mary Mendel Katz, Chambless Higdon Richardson Katz Griggs, Macon, Angela Edwards Davis, Kenneth Paul Robin, Jarrard & Davis, LLP, Cumming, for appellee.
OpinionBLACKWELL, Justice.
Mike Layer built a sewer pumping station for Barrow County, and he allegedly entered into an agreement with the County pursuant to which he would retain an interest in a portion of the pumping capacity at the station. Layer, however, failed to get this alleged agreement in writing. After he was refused his alleged interest in the pumping capacity, Layer sued Barrow County, the City of Auburn, and a host of county and city officials (in both their official and individual capacities), asserting breach of contract, unjust enrichment, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, promissory estoppel, and an unconstitutional taking of his property without just compensation. For these alleged wrongs, Layer sought an award of monetary damages and just compensation, as well as prospective relief in the nature of specific performance, but in the form of an injunction and writ of mandamus.1The trial court dismissed his lawsuit, and Layer appeals. We affirm.
1. We begin with the dismissal of the claims sounding in breach of contract and various quasi-contractual theories of liability. As a general rule, counties enjoy sovereign immunity. See Toombs County v. O'Neal,254 Ga. 390, 391(1), 330 S.E.2d 95 (1985)(“[The] constitutional reservation of sovereign immunity to ‘the State’ is a constitutional reservation of sovereign immunity to the counties of the State of Georgia.”). And county officers sued in their official capacities—since a suit against a county officer in her official capacity isa suit against the county itself—enjoy the same sovereign immunity. Gilbert v. Richardson,264 Ga. 744, 746(4), n. 4, 452 S.E.2d 476 (1994). Although sovereign immunity has been waived for “action[s] ex contractu for the breach of any writtencontract,” Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. I, Sec. II, Par. IX(c) (emphasis supplied), sovereign immunity generally will bar a lawsuit for breach of an unwritten contract. Bd. of Regents of Univ. System of Ga. v. Winter,331 Ga.App. 528, 532(2), 771 S.E.2d 201 (2015). And sovereign immunity also will bar a lawsuit for damages upon quasi-contractual theories of liability in the absence of a written contract. Carroll v. Bd. of Regents of Univ. System of Ga.,324 Ga.App. 598, 603(3), 751 S.E.2d 421 (2013). The alleged oral agreement with Barrow County is the basis for all of the contractual and quasi-contractual
claims that Layer asserts in this case. With one exception, those contractual and quasi-contractual claims are barred by sovereign immunity as against the County and its officers in their official capacities.
Sovereign immunity is no bar to mandamus relief, SJN Properties v. Fulton County Bd....
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