McFadden, Presiding Judge.Angelita Aaron appeals the trial court’s order dismissing her personal injury lawsuit on statute-of-limitation grounds. Aaron argues that her lawsuit is not barred by the statute of limitation because it is a timely renewal of an earlier filed lawsuit. But the first lawsuit did not name the same defendant; the two lawsuits named entirely different instrumentalities of the state: the first named the Georgia Department of Natural Resources; the second named the Jekyll Island-State Park Authority. So the instant lawsuit is not a valid renewal action. Accordingly the trial court did not err by dismissing the lawsuit on statute-of-limitation grounds and we affirm. On September 17, 2015, days before the statute of limitation ran, see OCGA § 50-21-27 (c), Aaron filed a complaint for injuries she sustained on September 21, 2013, at the Summer Waves Water Park on Jekyll Island. Aaron named as the defendant, “Georgia Department of Natural Resources d/b/a Summer Waves Water Park.” Aaron dismissed the case without prejudice in December 2015.On June 21, 2016, Aaron filed the instant lawsuit for the same injuries. She named as the defendant,”Jekyll Island State Park Authority, a/k/a Jekyll Island Authority, d/b/a Summer Waves Water Park.” In the complaint she contended that her action was a renewal action that related back to the complaint filed September 17, 2015. The Jekyll Island-State Park Authority, which owns and operates the Summer Waves Water Park, answered the complaint, raising a statute-of-limitation defense. It moved to dismiss the complaint on that ground, arguing that Aaron’s complaint was not a renewal of the previously filed complaint because it named a different defendant. The trial court agreed and dismissed the complaint, and Aaron filed this appeal. Because the defendant newly named in the renewal action is not substantially identical to the one named in the original action, we agree as well. OCGA § 9-2-61, the renewal statute, provides in pertinent part, “When any case has been commenced in either a state or federal court within the applicable statute of limitations and the plaintiff discontinues or dismisses the same, it may be recommenced in a court of this state or in a federal court either within the original applicable period of limitations or within six months after the discontinuance or dismissal, whichever is later. . ..” OCGA § 9-2-61 (a). When filing a renewal action,[i]f the statute of limitation has not run, the plaintiff may add new parties and new claims to the refiled action; however, if the statute of limitation has expired, the plaintiff is limited to suing the same defendants under the same theories of recovery. The new petition must be substantially the same as the original as to the essential parties. The renewal statute may not be used to suspend the running of the statute of limitation as to defendants different from those originally sued.
