MIMS v. CLANTON8/15/1996
This case appeared before the court in Mims v. Clanton, 215 Ga. App. 665 (452 S.E.2d 169) (1994) and was reversed and remanded to determine whether or not Gwinnett County was self-insured so as to waive sovereign immunity as to the first $250,000 in liability which was deductible from the insurance policy coverage of $750,000 in force at the time of the personal injury resulting from the collision of a fire engine with the plaintiff.
At the trial court's direction Gwinnett County amended its response to plaintiff's interrogatories: "Please describe any self-insurance plan, investment plan, fund, bank or trust account, or other reservoir of resources of any kind or character whatsoever, established or maintained by Gwinnett County or any subdivision or agency thereof, since January 1, 1985, from or to which any funds have been designated, allocated or appropriated for payment of tort claims against the County, any subdivision or agency thereof, of any employee, agent or representative thereof acting within the course and scope of his or her employment.
"Response: Gwinnett County states that it did not maintain a self-insurance plan to cover claims below the $250,000 threshold amount. Moreover, Gwinnett County did not fund a liability trust or other spending account in lieu of commercial insurance for the payment of claims.
"The Board of Commissioners failed to take any affirmative action to propose, endorse, ratify, or establish a fund to pay claims prior to or on the date of the subject incident. Rather, any money expended to pay a claim was derived from the general budget of Risk Management. Accordingly, the respective sum of money appropriated to Risk Management was purely a budgetary function in which claims and legal expenses consisted of a portion of the total sum. Salaries, supplies, taxes, and other operating expenses comprised the sum total of money allocated to Risk Management. . . .
"On January 2, 1990, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners voted to appropriate $3,584,146 to the Risk Management Fund. The vote was not specifically to appropriate money for Risk Management, but was to adopt the 1990 Gwinnett County Budget of which Risk Management Fund was a portion.
"The following items were included in the $3,854,146 amount: permanent salaries, overtime salaries, other wages, salary increases for performance, employee group insurance, FICA, Workers' Compensation, longevity bonuses, retirement, office supplies, general operating supplies, industrial repair & maintenance, furniture/fixture repair & maintenance, data processing software, printing services, telephone, postage, professional services, insurance, dues and subscriptions, publicity and public relations, training, conference and travel, rent, miscellaneous other services, fleet, contribution to vehicle replacement, contribution to Risk Management, interest expense, office furniture/fixtures and equipment, EDP equipment.
"The vast majority of these accounts had money appropriated to them. On August 21, 1990, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners through their annually scheduled mid-year budget revision, revised the County's overall budget, but no additional monies were appropriated to the Risk Management Fund. . . .
"In response to the above interrogatory and in contrast to the status of risk management set forth above, on April 17, 1990 the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners adopted the enclosed ordinance entitled `Limited Waiver of Governmental Immunity' which provided, inter alia, a specific waiver of immunity to extent it was not excluded by law, to an incident or occurrence involving bodily injury and property damage claims up to an amount n
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