Opinion
A99A1677.
DECIDED: AUGUST 31, 2000.
Malpractice affidavit. Forsyth Superior Court. Before Judge Gault.
Doffermyre, Shields, Canfield, Knowles Devine, Foy R. Devine, David S. Hagy, Mundy Gammage, William D. Sparks, for appellant.
Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General, Kathleen M. Pacious, Deputy Attorney General, Lawson, Davis, Pickren Seydel, Paul R. Jordan, Alison H. Price III, G. Thomas Davis, for appellee.
In Minnix v. Department of Transportation, 240 Ga. App. 524 ( 525 S.E.2d 704) (1999), we affirmed the dismissal of professional negligence claims brought by Jimmy Kay Minnix and Bonnie C. Minnix against the Georgia Department of Transportation ("DOT"), holding that the plaintiffs' failure to attach an expert affidavit to their complaint was fatal to those claims. In Minnix v. Department of Transportation, Case Number S00G0340, decided July 5, 2000, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of this Court, holding that where a professional negligence action is filed against an employer based upon the action or inaction of its agent or employee, the expert affidavit requirement of O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1 (a), as amended in 1997, does not apply to employers other than licensed health care facilities.
Accordingly, the judgment of the Supreme Court is made the judgment of this Court, and the judgment of the superior court dismissing plaintiffs' professional negligence claims against the DOT is reversed.
Judgment reversed. Johnson, C. J., and Phipps, J., concur.