Frontage owned by state or subdivisions abutting streets or sidewalks treated as owned by individuals for purpose of assessment for improvements; designation of signers.

Whenever the owners of land abutting on any street or sidewalk petition to have the street or sidewalk improved and the state or any of its political subdivisions is the owner of property abutting on the street, the frontage owned by the state or political subdivision shall be counted as if owned by an individual and shall be treated as if owned by an individual for the purposes of assessment. When the state is the owner of the property, the Governor may sign the application for and in behalf of the state. When a county is the owner of the property, the county governing authority may sign in behalf of the county. When a municipality is the owner of the property, the mayor of the municipality where the property is located may sign in behalf of the municipality. History. Ga. L. 1906, p. 119, § 1; Civil Code 1910, § 871; Code 1933, § 92-4202; Code 1933, § 91A-1509, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2. JUDICIAL DECISIONS Applicability. — Statute has no application except whenever the abutting owners of any street or sidewalk in the state petition to have the street or sidewalk improved. City of LaGrange v. Troup County, 132 Ga. 384, 64 S.E. 267, 1909 Ga. LEXIS 117 (1909). OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Sovereign immunity of the state. — So important a sovereign right as the state’s immunity from suit should not and could not be relinquished without a clear, unambiguous, and unequivocal Act of the General Assembly. This statute is ambiguous, and the state’s immunity from suits is not sufficiently expressed and specific to rule that the state’s immunity has been removed. 1948-49 Ga. Op. Att'y Gen. 344. State’s liability for paving assessments. — General Assembly intended and did in fact fix the state’s liability for paving assessments when the paving is done as a result of a petition; the liability is fixed at the same rate as that of individuals. 1948-49 Ga. Op. Att'y Gen. 344. When state liable for paving assessments. — State’s property is not subject to assessment for street improvements in the absence of the state’s assent or a petition by the state for such improvements. 1963-65 Ga. Op. Att'y Gen. 744. State’s authority to pay for paving property abutting its property. — State may not, without legislative authority, pay a municipality for the cost of paving property abutting that of the state. 1948-49 Ga. Op. Att'y Gen. 347. Department of Transportation may not reimburse a municipality for paving already done on property abutting that of the state. 1948-49 Ga. Op. Att'y Gen. 347. RESEARCH REFERENCES C.J.S. 64 C.J.S., Municipal Corporations, § 1492.