Murray v. Georgia Department of Transportation

644 S.E.2d 290, 284 Ga. App. 263
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 19, 2007
DocketA06A1655, A06A1656
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 644 S.E.2d 290 (Murray v. Georgia Department of Transportation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murray v. Georgia Department of Transportation, 644 S.E.2d 290, 284 Ga. App. 263 (Ga. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

Andrews, Presiding Judge.

Robert Daniel Murray IV died as a result of injuries he suffered when the automobile in which he was a passenger was struck by another automobile at the intersection of State Route 8 with Broad Street/McMillan Road in the City of Dacula in Gwinnett County. Murray’s parents and his estate brought suit to recover for wrongful death, pain and suffering, and other expenses alleging that the fatal accident was caused by the negligence of the Georgia Department of Transportation (State DOT), various employees of the Gwinnett County Department of Transportation (Gwinnett County DOT) in their individual capacities, CSX Transportation, Inc. (CSX), and Joe Gregory, the driver of the automobile which struck the automobile [264]*264occupied by Murray.1 The trial court dismissed the State DOT from the suit on the basis of sovereign immunity, granted summary judgment in favor of the Gwinnett County DOT employees on the basis of official immunity, and granted summary judgment in favor of CSX finding there was no basis for the negligence claim. The plaintiffs below appeal from these rulings in Case No. A06A1655. In Case No. A06A1656, two of the Gwinnett County DOT employees cross-appeal from the trial court’s denial of their motion to disqualify plaintiffs’ counsel. For the following reasons, we affirm the trial court’s rulings in favor of the defendants below in Case No. A06A1655 and dismiss as moot the cross-appeal in Case No. A06A1656.

Case No. A06A165S

1. On the date of the accident, traffic on State Route 8 had the right-of-way at the intersection, and stop signs controlled automobiles approaching the intersection on Broad Street from the west and on McMillan Road from the east. The automobile in which Murray was a passenger was driven at the time of the accident by Gabriele Bernhard, who approached State Route 8 on McMillan Road on the east side of the intersection and stopped at the stop sign. Northbound traffic was backed up and stopped on State Route 8, but southbound traffic was still moving across the intersection. When northbound traffic stopped at the intersection, Bernhard pulled slowly into the intersection across the northbound lane of State Route 8 and stopped in the intersection before attempting to cross the southbound lane. Bernhard testified that she stopped because a van in a turn lane on State Route 8 blocked her view of approaching southbound traffic. At that point, Bernhard said the driver of a vehicle at the stop sign on Broad Street on the west side of the intersection “waved me over, was saying it was okay for me to come on over, and that’s when I went.” Bernhard testified that, even though she was blocked from seeing traffic approaching in the southbound lane, she drove into the southbound lane because “I was trusting her that she said it was okay to go.” When Bernhard attempted to drive across the southbound lane of traffic, her automobile was struck on the passenger side by Gregory’s automobile traveling southbound with the right-of-way on State Route 8.

On these facts, the plaintiffs alleged that the absence of a traffic signal at the intersection was a proximate cause of the accident, and that there was no traffic signal when the accident occurred on August [265]*26522, 2000, because the State DOT, the Gwinnett County DOT employees, and CSX negligently delayed installation of a traffic signal after authorization for a signal was issued by the State DOT on August 25, 1999. The record shows that, pursuant to a request from the Gwinnett County DOT, the State DOT issued a “Traffic Signal Authorization” on August 25,1999, which approved the use of a green/yellow/red-sequence stop and go traffic signal on State Route 8 at the intersection. The State DOT authorization was subject to conditions that State-supplied traffic signal equipment would be installed, operated and maintained by the Gwinnett County DOT according to State DOT standards, and that the signal would be installed with a railroad preemption device to coordinate operation of the signal with operation of the gates and flashing lights at the CSX railroad grade crossing located at the intersection of the CSX railroad tracks and Broad Street just west of the intersection of Broad Street and State Route 8. The purpose of the preemption device was to ensure that, when a train approached the grade crossing at Broad Street, the traffic signal would be preempted so that it operated to keep traffic from being stopped on or directed toward the railroad tracks while a train was passing.

2. We find no merit in the plaintiffs’ claim that the trial court erred by granting the State DOT’s motion to dismiss on the basis of sovereign immunity. As a department of the State of Georgia, the State DOT was sued pursuant to the Georgia Tort Claims Act (GTCA), OCGA § 50-21-20 et seq. Under the GTCA, sovereign immunity from suit granted to the State and its departments by the Georgia Constitution is waived subject to certain limitations and exceptions set forth in the GTCA. Ga. Forestry Comm. v. Canady, 280 Ga. 825-826 (632 SE2d 105) (2006). To the extent the GTCA sets forth an exception to the waiver of sovereign immunity, the State and its departments remain immune from suit, and any suit brought to which an exception applies is subject to dismissal pursuant to OCGA§ 9-11-12 (b) (1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Steele v. Ga. Dept. of Transp., 271 Ga. App. 374-376 (609 SE2d715) (2005). The party seeking to benefit from the waiver of sovereign immunity has the burden of proof to establish waiver, and the trial court’s pre-trial ruling on factual issues necessary to decide the OCGA § 9-11-12 (b) (1) motion is reviewed on appeal under the any evidence rule. Dept. of Transp. v. Dupree, 256 Ga. App. 668, 671-674 (570 SE2d 1) (2002); Conrad v. Conrad, 278 Ga. 107, 109 (597 SE2d 369) (2004); Steele, 271 Ga. App. at 376; OCGA §9-11-12 (d).

In the present case, the State DOT moved for dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction asserting that it was entitled to sovereign immunity from the plaintiffs’ claims on the basis of two GTCA [266]*266exceptions to waiver of immunity set forth in OCGA § 50-21-24. First, subsection (9) of OCGA § 50-21-24 provides that

[t]he state shall have no liability for losses resulting from... [l]icensing powers or functions, including, but not limited to, the issuance, denial, suspension, or revocation of or the failure or refusal to issue, deny, suspend, or revoke any permit, license, certificate, approval, order, or similar authorization.

This exception granted the State DOT immunity from any claim that it was liable for “losses resulting from” issuance, denial, suspension, or revocation of an authorization (or the failure or refusal to issue, deny, suspend, or revoke an authorization) to install a traffic signal at the intersection. Dept. of Transp. v. Cox, 246 Ga. App. 221, 224-225 (540 SE2d 218) (2000).

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Bluebook (online)
644 S.E.2d 290, 284 Ga. App. 263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murray-v-georgia-department-of-transportation-gactapp-2007.