City of College Park v. Clayton County

Summary

The court held that sovereign immunity does not bar a lawsuit between two Georgia political subdivisions acting through their respective home-rule powers, because neither subdivision is sovereign over the other and no state sovereignty is implicated. The court also held that mandamus claims against officials in their official capacities are expressly authorized and that sovereign immunity does not bar properly characterized individual-capacity claims. Because sovereign immunity is a threshold jurisdictional issue, the trial court erred by granting interpleader relief before resolving immunity; the judgment was reversed in part, vacated in part, and remanded.