Court Opinion

ID: 9579147
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:51:57.440303+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:34:29.387308
License: Public Domain

Gunter, Justice
dissenting. I dissent from this court’s judgment affirming the judgment of the trial court which made the Board of Commissioners of Walton County a party defendant in this case.
Division 1 of the majority opinion merely says that the trial court did not err in ordering that the Board of Commissioners be made a party defendant in the case, citing Code Ann. § 81A-119 (b). This cited law says: "When persons who are not indispensable, but who ought to be parties if complete relief is to be accorded between those already parties, have not been made parties and are subject to the jurisdiction of the court, the court shall order them summoned to appear in the action.” The words that must be emphasized in this quoted law are: "who ought to be parties if complete relief is to be accorded between those already parties.” I am of the opinion that complete relief can be effected in the action below against the original defendant, the City of Social Circle; and the board of commissioners, a separate legal entity from the city, having no connection with the city-owned, city-operated garbage dump, ought not and can not, in my opinion, be made a party defendant in the action below.
The Department of Public Health originally brought this action against the city only, seeking to enjoin the city from continuing to operate its garbage dump in such a manner as to cause a nuisance. The record plainly shows that the city owned and operated the garbage dump. The record plainly shows that the board of commissioners had no relationship to or connection with the garbage dump with respect to its ownership or operation. The action was brought *178to abate a nuisance. The owner and operator of the nuisance must abate it. The board of commissioners was not the owner or operator. Complete relief could have been accorded between the original parties to the action.
The trial court committed error, and I would reverse its judgment making the board of commissioners a party defendant in the case.
I respectfully dissent.