The Georgia Supreme Court revived a Dahlonega hemp company’s lawsuit, rejecting the state’s argument that law enforcement activity automatically shields it from paying for damaged private property.
Blue 42 Organics alleges three helicopters and a fixed-wing aircraft flew low over its licensed hemp farm during a July 2021 drug-interdiction operation, WABE reported. The company’s complaint says rotor and propeller wash destroyed two rows of crops worth about $37,000, even though the farm had registered its coordinates with state and federal agriculture officials.
The Georgia Department of Public Safety persuaded a trial judge to dismiss the case, arguing sovereign immunity barred the company’s inverse-condemnation claim because officers were exercising the state’s police power. The Court of Appeals affirmed that decision.
The participating justices unanimously rejected a categorical police-power exception to Georgia’s constitutional requirement that government provide “just and adequate compensation” when it takes or damages private property for public purposes. Chief Justice Nels Peterson wrote that allowing the state to avoid compensation merely by invoking police power would make the constitutional protection empty.
The court said prior cases recognize narrower exceptions when government destroys property to abate an actual nuisance or confront an urgent necessity, such as stopping a spreading fire. The Department of Public Safety did not establish either exception when seeking dismissal.
The ruling does not award Blue 42 damages or determine that the department is ultimately liable. At this stage, courts must treat the company’s well-pleaded allegations as true. The justices said other defenses or exceptions could still emerge as the case continues.
The decision reverses the Court of Appeals and sends the dispute back for further proceedings. It overturns earlier appellate precedent to the extent it treated any exercise of police power as sufficient to defeat a property owner’s compensation claim.
