Guy v. Housing Authority of the City of Augusta, [Ms. S24G1346, June 24, 2025] __ Ga. __ (2025). The Court (Peterson, C.J.; Warren, P.J., and Bethel, Ellington, McMillian, LaGrua, Colvin, and Pinson, JJ., concur) vacated the Court of Appeals’ decision affirming summary judgment on sovereign immunity grounds and remanded for proper analysis under English common law as adopted by Georgia in 1784. The Court held that Article I, Section II, Paragraph IX of the Georgia Constitution confers sovereign immunity only on the State and its “departments and agencies”—a provision that does not apply to municipalities or their instrumentalities. Ms. **7–9. The Court emphasized that whether municipal instrumentalities like local housing authorities are immune from suit must be resolved by examining common law as of 1776, not by applying case law concerning state instrumentalities. Ms. **10–13.
The Court found that neither the trial court nor the Court of Appeals had conducted the required common law analysis. Instead, the lower courts improperly relied on precedent interpreting sovereign immunity under Article I rather than examining the scope of municipal immunity as preserved by Article IX. Because the question of whether the Housing Authority qualifies as an “instrumentality” of a municipality entitled to immunity had not been properly addressed or briefed, the Court vacated the judgment and remanded for further proceedings under the correct analytical framework. Ms. **13–15.