Since 1998, the Georgia Court of Appeals has conflated the sovereign and official immunity analysis in the context of medical-care claims, and has held that “because medical care is a fundamental right and is not discretionary in requiring medical care,” such act is not subject to sovereign immunity. See Cantrell v. Thurman, 231 Ga. App. 510 (1998); Middlebrooks v. Bibb County, 261 Ga. App. 382 (2003) and Howard v. City of Columbus, 239 Ga. App. 399 (1999)
On July 13, 2015, a unanimous Georgia Court of Appeals issued a decision in a case handled by Rick Strickland and Paul Scott, expressly holding that sovereign immunity bars state law medical–care claims, and expressly overruling 17 years of case law holding otherwise. This is a significant victory for those defendants entitled to sovereign immunity. The case is Tattnall County v. Armstrong, Case No. A15A0163, (Ga. Ct. App. July 13, 2015) .