Court Opinion

ID: 9585700
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:03:02.721994+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:03.741688
License: Public Domain

Shulman, Judge,
concurring specially.
While I am in general agreement with the premise expressed in the second division of the dissent, I feel obliged to take this opportunity to disagree with the first division of the dissent.
The first case cited in the dissent, Goolsby v. Regents of the Univ. System of Ga., 141 Ga. App. 605 (234 SE2d 165), has been misapplied, both in the dissent in this case and in the second case cited in the dissent, C. F. I. Const. Co. v. Bd. of Regents, 145 Ga. App. 471 (243 SE2d 700). In both instances, Goolsby is quoted as holding: "The doctrine of sovereign immunity is not a bar to the enforcement of constitutional rights...” However, in both instances, the second (and most pertinent) half of the sentence was omitted. The complete sentence, placed in context, follows: "In appellant’s second and third enumerations of error, he asserts that even if sovereign immunity attached to the Board of Regents immediately upon the repeal of the 1785 Act, as we have held it did, the doctrine cannot be applied here because the appellant’s claims are bottomed on guarantees of the Constitutions of Georgia and the United States. That the enumerations are without merit is clear from the holding in Palmer v. Ohio, 248 U. S. 32: 'The right of individuals to sue a State ... cannot be derived from the Constitution or laws of the United States. It can come only from the consent of the *563State.’ The doctrine of sovereign immunity is not a bar to the enforcement of constitutional rights; it merely operates to withhold from the courts jurisdiction over the person of the state, without regard for the basis of the suit.” Goolsby, supra, p. 609. (Emphasis supplied.) C. F. I. Const. Co., supra, and the dissent in this case are in conflict with the holding of this court in Goolsby, supra.
Although I do not approve of continued adherence to the doctrine of sovereign immunity, I feel bound by the decisions of the Supreme Court and pronouncements of the General Assembly cited in the majority opinion and in Goolsby, supra. It is for that reason that I concur in the judgment of the majority.