Shirley Haney Butler was walking along Academy Avenue “Academy” as she was leaving the Mountain Moonshine Festival the “Festival” in Dawsonville on October 25, 2003, when she was run over by a trailer attached to a truck driven by Gregory Layne Chastain. An antique car sat atop the trailer.1 Mrs. Butler died as a result of her injuries. Her husband, N. Raymond Butler, filed a wrongful death action against Chastain, the City of Dawsonville the “City”, and Billy Carlisle, the Sheriff of Dawson County. Butler’s claims against the City and Sheriff are premised in part on their alleged negligent failure to implement proper traffic and pedestrian control measures during the Festival. Butler claims that the City is liable for the Sheriff’s allegedly negligent acts as a joint venturer based on an intergovernmental agreement entered into by the Dawson County Sheriff’s Department and the City. Each defendant filed a motion for summary judgment, asserting, inter alia, that Butler’s claims were barred by the Recreational Property Act, OCGA § 51-3-20 et seq. “RPA” and the public duty doctrine. The Sheriff also asserted that all claims against him were barred by sovereign and official immunity. The trial court granted the motions in a one-paragraph order, and Butler appeals. For reasons that follow, we affirm the grant of summary judgment to the Sheriff and reverse the grant of summary judgment to the City. “On appeal from the grant of a motion for summary judgment, we conduct a de novo review of the law and evidence, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmovant, to determine whether a genuine issue of material fact exists and whether the moving party was entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”2 “In other words, summary judgment is appropriate when the court, viewing all the facts and reasonable inferences from those facts in a light most favorable to the non-moving party, concludes that the evidence does not create a triable issue as to each essential element of the case.”3 Mindful of these principles, we review the facts of record insofar as they are relevant to the dispositive issues.
The record reveals that Academy is a narrow, two-lane street that has no sidewalks. Bridget Anderson, Mrs. Butler’s adult daughter, deposed that at the time of the incident, vehicles were parked on both sides of the street, and no law enforcement officers or community volunteers were directing traffic. Anderson was in front of her mother as they walked single-file close to the white line on the right side of the street. When Anderson reached an area of wider pavement, she stopped to turn around and talk to her mother. Anderson heard her mother moan and then saw her “being twisted and turned like a rag doll” under Chastain’s trailer. Chastain had come from behind Mrs. Butler, heading west on Academy, and he was pulling an oversized trailer that did not fit between the white lines. Chastain deposed that he was driving away from the Festival on State Route 53 “Route 53″, and when he reached its intersection with Academy, a volunteer was detouring traffic from Route 53 onto Academy.
