Staff / WRDW-TV
The supreme Court of Georgia allowed a property owners lawsuit against the state to move forward by upholding two lower court rulings. Mrs. Mixon, a Ware County resident with 18 acers of land, sued the Georgia Department of Transportation in 2018 due to a road widening project that diverted water onto her land diminishing her property value. The claims in her suit suggest that the flooding was the result of failure to maintain a storm drainage system by the DOT which resulted in the taking of her land without just compensation.
The DOT has countered with the legal doctrine of sovereign immunity, thus barring her claims. However, the Trail Court and the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed with Mrs. Mixon, forcing the DOT to appeal to the state Supreme Court. A recent ruling declared that sovereign immunity does not protect the state from being sued in certain circumstances.