Milton just won a round in a $35M case

One of the biggest financial threats in Milton's recent history just eased — and most residents probably never knew it was looming. In a divided ruling that drew little local notice, the Georgia Supreme Court sided with the city this spring in a long-running, multimillion-dollar lawsuit. Here's what happened, and what's still at stake.

How we got here. In 2016, Joshua Chang, a 21-year-old college student, died after his car left Batesville Road, slid more than 60 feet, flipped, and struck a concrete planter that sat more than six feet off the pavement. In 2023, a Fulton County jury found the City of Milton liable for his death on two grounds — negligence and "nuisance" — and awarded $35 million, reduced 7% for Chang's own share of fault. The Court of Appeals upheld it in 2024. And because the city says it carried just $2 million in insurance for a claim like this, a verdict that size could have overwhelmed Milton's budget — and, ultimately, fallen to residents.

The turn. On March 12, in a 5–2 decision, the Georgia Supreme Court vacated that judgment and sent the case back. The majority held that a city's legal duty to keep roads safe applies to the lanes meant for ordinary travel — not to objects off the road, like the planter Chang's car reached only after leaving the pavement. (Two justices dissented, arguing the duty should extend to the roadside, where the public still has a right to be.) More than 50 Georgia cities had backed Milton, warning the original verdict would expose them to liability for nearly anything in a road's right-of-way. The city called the outcome "highly favorable to Milton's residents and taxpayers."

But it's not over. The Court narrowed the case rather than ending it, leaving two big questions for the lower court: the separate nuisance claim — an independent basis for the jury's verdict — and whether the city's insurance changes what, if anything, it owes. So while the March ruling improved Milton's position, the case is far from won — the surviving nuisance claim could still carry the full verdict.

One reason you may not have heard any of this: the city's own public Q&A on the case still predates the ruling. We'll keep watching it.

Sources: Georgia Supreme Court opinion · Appen Media · City of Milton