City of Columbus, Georgia Pays $175,000 To Settle Injury Lawsuit
As Georgia lawyers handling automobile accident and truck accident cases we have litigated many such cases against Georgia municipalities. I recently read about a case where a man and his wife in Columbus, Georgia filed a personal injury lawsuit against the City of Columbus and a former firefighter to recover for injuries sustained after he ran into their vehicle with a city fire truck. The former firefighter who reportedly tested positive for cocaine an hour and 15 minutes after the crash resigned his job shortly after the collision
What is interesting about the case is that under current Georgia law, city and county governments have sovereign immunity which is waived only to the extent of available liability insurance they may have in force. In this case, the City had $100,000.00 in liability coverage and therefore that was the extent to which the plaintiffs could normally recover from them even if a jury had awarded them substantially more. Fortunately for these injured victims the City of Columbus apparently saw fit to pay them an amount over and above the $100,000.00 in liability insurance and settled the case with them for $175,000, but it could have been different.
Georgia’s sovereign immunity law is unfair to victims of automobile and truck accidents which are caused by the negligence of government employees in the performance of their jobs. People should call their state legislators and ask that cities and counties be held accountable like a private person. It is outrageous to think that a person can be injured or killed by a negligent city or county employee and that the victim would be limited in their recovery to whatever insurance may have been purchased by the governmental entity. The state and the counties should be liable for injuries or death just like any other private citizen.
