Judge dismisses suit by Georgia slave descendants over technical errors. Lawyers vow to try again

By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Attorneys plan to refile a lawsuit over zoning changes that they say threaten one of the South’s last Gullah-Geechee communities of Black slave descendants. A Superior Court judge threw out the original civil complaint Tuesday, ruling that the lawsuit improperly named individual commissioners of coastal McIntosh County. That clashed with a 2020 amendment to Georgia’s state constitution dealing with legal immunity granted to state and local governments. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed suit last year on behalf of the residents of the tiny Hogg Hummock Community on Sapelo Island. They argue zoning changes will raise their property taxes and force them to sell land. Attorney Miriam Gutman said the center would sue again, naming McIntosh County as the sole defendant.