Opinion
28156.
ARGUED SEPTEMBER 11, 1973.
DECIDED OCTOBER 5, 1973. REHEARING DENIED NOVEMBER 8, 1973.
Injunction. Chattooga Superior Court. Before Judge Coker.
Arthur K. Bolton, Attorney General, Marion O. Gordon, Edwin Hallman, Jr., Assistant Attorneys General, Harold N. Hill, Jr., Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Michael E. Sullivan, for appellant.
F. H. Boney, for appellee.
Under decisions exemplified by Waller v. State Hwy. Dept., 218 Ga. 605 ( 129 S.E.2d 772); Muggridge v. State Hwy. Dept., 229 Ga. 670 ( 193 S.E.2d 849), and similar cases, the judgment of the trial court refusing to grant the Georgia Department of Transportation an injunction prohibiting the appellee from encroaching upon the highway right-of-way must be reversed.
Judgment reversed. All the Justices concur, except Nichols, J., who dissents.
ARGUED SEPTEMBER 11, 1973 — DECIDED OCTOBER 5, 1973 — REHEARING DENIED NOVEMBER 8, 1973.
I dissent from the judgment of reversal in this case because from the evidence adduced it is apparent that the Georgia Department of Transportation was in this case singling out this defendant and requiring him to vacate an admitted encroachment while permitting adjoining landowners to continue encroaching upon the same right-of-way. Such conduct constitutes a denial of equal protection of the law by applying the law differently to different persons under the same or similar circumstances. See Buchanan v. State, 215 Ga. 791, 792 ( 113 S.E.2d 609), and citations.