Claims Arising From Intentional Acts Of City Held Not Subject To Ante Litem Notice

In an April 1, 2024 Opinion, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that the Plaintiffs’ inverse condemnation claims were not subject to the requirement that the Plaintiffs’ send a timely ante litem notice to the City of Canton in order to preserve their claim arising from a leaking sanitary sewage pipe. The Court of Appeals followed a previous Georgia Supreme Court ruling that alleged intentional acts of misconduct by a City that cause damage to a Plaintiff are not subject to the ante litem notice requirement normally imposed on a Plaintiff who is alleging negligence on the part of a City that causes damage. According to the Opinion,  the allegations in the Plaintiffs’ Complaint that “[t}he City was notified of this problem in 2017, but denied liability and “declined to take any action” until 2020″ was sufficient to place this case in the category of cases where the Plaintiff was alleging intentional acts on the part of the City that caused the Plaintiff damage. This relieved the Plaintiffs of complying with the ante litem notice requirement. The Court of Appeals also relied on a previous Supreme Court of Georgia ruling that inverse condemnation claims, like the Plaintiffs’, are not subject to the ante litem notice. Please contact Rumsey & Ramsey, a Dunwoody, Georgia law firm, at (770) 394-9400 to discuss your personal injury or property damage claim against a city or county with an attorney.