2020 Georgia Code
Title 50 - State Government
Chapter 21 - Waiver of Sovereign Immunity as to Actions Ex Contractu; State Tort Claims
Article 1 - Waiver of Sovereign Immunity as to Actions Ex Contractu
§ 50-21-1. Waiver of Sovereign Immunity as to Actions Ex Contractu for Breach of Written Contract to Which State Is Party; Venue

1. The defense of sovereign immunity is waived as to any action ex contractu for the breach of any written contract existing on April 12, 1982, or thereafter entered into by the state, departments and agencies of the state, and state authorities.
2. Venue with respect to any such action shall be proper in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia. The provisions of this subsection shall be cumulative and supplemental to any other venue provisions permitted on April 12, 1982, or thereafter permitted by law.

(Ga. L. 1982, p. 495, § 1; Code 1981, §50-21-1, enacted by Ga. L. 1982, p. 495, § 2; Ga. L. 1984, p. 22, § 50.)

- For annual survey of Administrative Law, see 57 Mercer L. Rev. 1 (2005). For article, "Administrative Law," see 63 Mercer L. Rev. 47 (2011).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Venue.

- Trial court had jurisdiction over the plaintiff's suit for breach of contract filed in the State Court of Fulton County because the plain meaning of the last sentence of O.C.G.A. § 50-21-1(b) shows that venue for such a claim is not exclusive to the Superior Court of Fulton County, but rather that venue in that court shall be cumulative and supplemental to other legal venue. Bd. of Regents of the Univ. Sys. of Ga. v. Winter, 331 Ga. App. 528, 771 S.E.2d 201 (2015), overruled on other grounds, Rivera v. Washington, 298 Ga. 770, 784 S.E.2d 775 (Ga. 2016).

- Georgia Tort Claims Act (GTCA), O.C.G.A. § 50-21-20 et seq., did not bar a state employees' breach and impairment of contract suit against the Employees Retirement System of the State of Georgia as the action sounded in contract and O.C.G.A. § 50-21-1, which was not part of the GTCA, which waived sovereign immunity as to an action ex contractu for the breach of a written contract. Alverson v. Employees' Ret. Sys., 272 Ga. App. 389, 613 S.E.2d 119 (2005).

- Even though sovereign immunity has been waived for the breach of any written contract, O.C.G.A. § 50-21-1, there has been no such waiver for oral contracts. Soloski v. Adams, 600 F. Supp. 2d 1276 (N.D. Ga. 2009).

- Because Georgia did not waive the states' Eleventh Amendment immunity, the federal district court lacked jurisdiction to decide the student's breach of contract claim against the Board of Regents. Barnes v. Zaccari, 669 F.3d 1295 (11th Cir. 2012).

- In a medical malpractice suit, two physicians were entitled to official immunity under O.C.G.A. §§ 50-21-23(b) and50-21-25(a) because the record established that the physicians were full-time faculty members at a Georgia medical college performing the physicians' regular duties of employment at the time the estate's decedent was allegedly injured. Cook v. Forrester, 323 Ga. App. 631, 746 S.E.2d 624 (2013).

- Surety on a public contract, after assisting the contractor in completing the project, stood in the place of the contractor and was subrogated to the contractor's right of action for breach of contract against the Georgia Department of Corrections; under Ga. Const 1983, Art. I, Sec. II, Para. IX(c), the state waived sovereign immunity for contracts. State Dep't of Corr. v. Developers Sur. & Indem. Co., 295 Ga. 741, 763 S.E.2d 868 (2014).

- In a dispute over compensation between firefighters and the city, alleged course of conduct by the parties was ineffective to waive sovereign immunity. Shelnutt v. Mayor & Aldermen of Savannah, 349 Ga. App. 499, 826 S.E.2d 379 (2019).

- Developer failed to meet the developer's burden of showing waiver of sovereign immunity because even if the parties' conduct after the expiration of the contract could be found to demonstrate that the developer was to continue to perform under the original contract, as a matter of law, neither that conduct nor the internal documents created by a state agency after the contract expired established a written contract to do so and without a written contract, the state's sovereign immunity was not waived. Georgia Department of Labor v. RTT Associates, Inc., 299 Ga. 78, 786 S.E.2d 840 (2016).

Cited in Fedorov v. Bd. of Regents, 194 F. Supp. 2d 1378 (S.D. Ga. 2002); Bd. of Regents of the Univ. Sys. of Ga. v. One Sixty Over Ninety, LLC, 351 Ga. App. 133, 830 S.E.2d 503 (2019), cert. denied, No. S19C1521, 2020 Ga. LEXIS 118 (Ga. 2020).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

Am. Jur. 2d.

- 72 Am. Jur. 2d, States, Territories, and Dependencies, § 96.

- 81A C.J.S., States, § 533 et seq.

ARTICLE 2 STATE TORT CLAIMS

Law reviews.

- For article, "The 1992 Georgia Tort Claims Act," see 9 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 431 (1993). For article, "Tort Claims Against the State: Georgia's Compensation System," see 32 Ga. L. Rev. 1103 (1998). For article on administrative law, see 53 Mercer L. Rev. 81 (2001). For article, "Torts," see 53 Mercer L. Rev. 441 (2001). For article, "Trial Practice and Procedure," see 53 Mercer L. Rev. 475 (2001). For annual survey of administrative law, see 56 Mercer L. Rev. 31 (2004). For annual survey on administrative law, see 66 Mercer L. Rev. 1 (2014). For note on 1992 enactment of this article, see 9 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 349 (1992). For comment, "Abrogating Sovereign Immunity Pursuant to its Bankruptcy Clause Power: Congress Went Too Far!," see 13 Bank. Dev. J. 197 (1996).