See, e.g., City of Suwanee v. Settles Bridge Farm, LLC, 292 Ga. 434, 437, 738 S.E.2d 597 (2013). Indeed, exhaustion is the usual rule whenever one aggrieved by an administrative decision seeks judicial relief of any sort from that decision, whether under the APA or in the form of an equitable remedy, see, e.g., Otwell v. West, 220 Ga. 95, 98 (1) (b), 137 S.E.2d 291 (1964), an extraordinary remedy, see, e.g., O’Callahan v. Aikens, 218 Ga. 46, 46 (3), 126 S.E.2d 212 (1962), or a declaratory judgment, see, e.g., Shelley v. Town of Tyrone, 302 Ga. 297, 303 (2), 806 S.E.2d 535 (2017). And even when there is no administrative decision from which judicial relief is sought, the exhaustion doctrine applies as well when the merits of a lawsuit are committed to the exclusive jurisdiction of an administrative agency.
Accordingly, the trial court did not err in sustaining the demurrer to the petition. Lindsey v. Board of Commissioners, 169 Ga. 368 ( 150 S.E. 261); Wofford v. Porte, 212 Ga. 533 ( 93 S.E.2d 690); Wofford v. City of Gainesville, 212 Ga. 818 ( 49 S.E.2d 490); O'Callahan v. Aikens, 218 Ga. 46 (3) ( 126 S.E.2d 212); Solomon v. Brown, 218 Ga. 508 ( 128 S.E.2d 735); Scott v. Undercofler, 108 Ga. App. 460 ( 133 S.E.2d 444). Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.