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Scott v. City of Valdosta

The plaintiff's false arrest and false imprisonment claims against the county and city defendants were barred by sovereign immunity.

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This appeal arises from Lindsay Eugene Scott’s arrest and detention by City of Valdosta police officers based upon a radio call from a Lowndes County deputy sheriff reporting that an arrest warrant had issued for a Lindsey E. Scott. The City and County answered and denied liability, and subsequently moved for summary judgment. After the trial court, in separate orders, granted Lowndes County’s motion to dismiss and granted the City of Valdosta’s motion for summary judgment, this appeal followed. Neither order explained the trial court’s rationale for granting the motions, but we will affirm them if they are right for any reason. Precise v. Rossville , 261 Ga. 210, 211 3 403 SE2d 47 1991. Scott appeals the dismissal of his complaint against Lowndes County and the grant of summary judgment to the City of Valdosta. He contends the trial court erred by dismissing the complaint against Lowndes County based upon the county’s sovereign immunity, and further contends that the City is liable because the officers did not exercise good faith in making the decision to arrest him, He also argues that, because the trial court granted summary judgment based solely on the issue of negligence, the immunity issues survived the summary judgment motions.

Even though we agree that the authorities inactions were negligent and what happened to Scott was terrible and could have been easily avoided, our law requires that we affirm the trial court’s rulings in favor of both defendants. Our Constitution and law give great protection to counties and cities. As a result, claims such as Scott’s sometimes fail because of the technical difficulties associated with prosecuting a claim against a governmental entity.

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