The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the City of Milton is shielded from a $32.5 million jury verdict tied to the 2016 death of Joshua Chang, a college student killed when his car left the road and struck a concrete planter on the shoulder of Batesville Road.
What’s Happening: The court vacated lower court decisions that had held Milton liable for Chang’s death. The majority opinion, written by Justice Andrew A. Pinson, found that the city’s legal duty to maintain safe streets applies only to the lanes of travel, not to the shoulder or other areas outside those lanes.
What’s Important: The ruling turns on a narrow legal question: whether Georgia law requires cities to keep road shoulders free of hazards. The court said it does not. “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 wrote.
What’s Still Unknown: The court’s majority opinion did not rule on whether any other legal theory, including the nuisance claim or other potential waivers of city immunity, could still apply in the case. Those questions remain open.
The Dissent: Two justices disagreed. Justice Verda M. Colvin, joined by Justice John J. Ellington, wrote that Milton’s duty to keep streets safe for ordinary travel should have covered the shoulder, because the public had a right to travel there. “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,” Justice Colvin wrote.
Catch Up Quick: Chang, a 21-year-old Yale student, died in November 2016 after his car struck a large concrete planter sitting about six feet off the edge of Batesville Road in Milton. The planter had been in place since before Milton was incorporated in 2006. A Fulton County jury awarded his parents, John Chang and Rebecca Zhu, more than $32.5 million. The Court of Appeals upheld that verdict before Milton asked the Supreme Court to step in. As previously reported, a Milton official had testified at trial that the city erred by leaving the planter in place, saying a “ball was dropped.”
How This Affects Real People: Georgia cities are generally protected from lawsuits by a legal doctrine called sovereign immunity, which shields governments from being sued unless that protection is specifically lifted by law. Thursday’s ruling means that protection holds when a roadside hazard sits outside the travel lanes, even if a driver strikes it.
The Path Forward: The case is not fully resolved. Because the Supreme Court’s ruling addressed only the road-defect negligence claim, Chang’s family may still pursue the nuisance claim and other legal theories that the court left untouched. Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson and Justice Benjamin A. Land were recused and did not participate in the decision.
More than 60 Georgia cities, along with Georgia Power, AT&T, Georgia Transmission Corporation, Atlanta Gas Light, and several other utilities and municipal groups, filed briefs supporting Milton. The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association filed a brief supporting the Chang family.
