Court Opinion

ID: 9588070
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:29:33.498151+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:00:43.267089
License: Public Domain

Gregory, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent to Division 4 of the majority opinion. We have already given the statutory language in question, “construction of an improvement to real property” a narrow construction. Turner v. Marable-Pirkle, Inc., 238 Ga. 517, 519 (233 SE2d 773) (1977). There we held: “The erection of a power pole, and the placing of the necessary equipment thereon, for the transmission of electricity is not such an improvement to real estate as was contemplated by the 1968 statute. And, as in this case, the mere changing or replacement of such equipment on a pole already erected is not an improvement to realty pursuant to this statute.” The actual improvement which had been made in the Turner case was the removal of the transformers, fuses, and other hardware on the poles so that the system would have a greater capacity for electricity. If the replacement of those devices was not such an improvement to realty as to bring the statute in to play, neither is the placement of a circuit breaker in this system such an improvement to realty as to bring the statute into play.
I am authorized to state that Justice Smith joins in this dissent.