Guy v. Hous. Authority of Augusta

The plaintiff filed a premises liability action in 2022, alleging she was shot in the leg during an attempted robbery in front of her apartment unit. She named the Housing Authority of the City of Augusta as the sole defendant, claiming it owned and managed her apartment complex and negligently failed to ensure the safety and security of residents. The trial court granted summary judgment to the Housing Authority of the City of Augusta, concluding it was protected by sovereign immunity as an instrumentality of the State, a municipal corporation, and an instrumentality of the City of Augusta. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision, holding that the Authority was entitled to sovereign immunity under Article IX, Section II, Paragraph IX of the Georgia Constitutionas since it was an instrumentality of a municipality. The Supreme Court vacated these decisions and held that the question of the Housing Authority’s immunity must be resolved by examining the common law as it existed in 1776, rather than relying on Georgia decisional law interpreting sovereign immunity for the State and its agencies.