Court Opinion

ID: 9566217
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:35:05.616177+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:33:20.062437
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Cross-appellant Gwen Orwig seeks rehearing on the question of DeKalb County’s liability for creating a nuisance by failing to clean up and restore Mrs. Orwig’s residence after the first sewage backup. We held, per Ingram v. Baldwin County, 149 Ga. App. 422 (254 SE2d 429) that since the county did not create the first sewage backup, it could not be liable for damages as for nuisance on that incident. However, Mrs. Orwig goes further and asserts that the county’s subsequent refusal to remove the noxious filth and problems created by that first backup amounted to the maintenance of a nuisance by the county. We understand fully Mrs. Orwig’s contentions on this point, and if she can show that DeKalb County had a duty to clear her home of the problem caused by the first sewage backup (which, apparently was caused by Georgia Power), then she may collect for its refusal to clean up. But the lingering problem caused by the first incident is not itself a “nuisance maintained by the county” unless the county had a duty to remove it. It is simply the result of the first sewage backup, and the fact that it was sewage that came from DeKalb’s lines does *262not make it actionable as an abatable nuisance unless DeKalb had an obligation to remove it in the course of its duty to maintain sewer lines. We assume this will be a matter of proof.
Decided June 11, 1990
Rehearings denied June 21, 1990 and July 9, 1990 — Cert, applied for.
Johnson & Montgomery, Nisbet S. Kendrick III, for appellant.
Gail C. Flake, for appellee.

Motion for rehearing denied.