The buyer proved the interference. It could not prove the cost
A Georgia appeals court wiped out a $380,000 jury verdict against Waste Management in a commercial land dispute.
Waste Management of Georgia sold two parcels to Dasht, LLC in 2015. One sat under a billboard. The other had a buried power line neither side knew about. A DeKalb County jury awarded Dasht $50,000 for interference with enjoyment of the billboard parcel, $10,000 for negligent misrepresentation, and $320,000 for interference with property rights tied to the power line. On October 21, 2026, the Court of Appeals reversed every dollar.
The access fight
Waste Management granted Dasht an easement to reach the billboard parcel through a gated keypad lock. Dasht’s owner had the code. In 2016, Waste Management changed it, saying the owner had knocked over trees and dumped debris in the easement area without permits.
With the gate locked, Dasht’s owner testified a Waste Management employee told him that for $30,000, he would get the company to restore access. The owner wrote checks totaling $12,250 - but from other businesses he owns, not from Dasht’s account.
That mattered. Georgia law treats a corporation as separate from its owner. Because the checks were not drawn on Dasht’s account, the court found no evidence Dasht itself suffered economic loss. A Waste Management district manager had testified the employee was “[a]bsolutely not” authorized to accept such payments.
The buried power line
Nobody knew a Georgia Power line was buried under the second parcel. It served Waste Management’s facilities, not Dasht’s. Dasht claimed Waste Management refused to cooperate with relocation efforts for five years. Georgia Power’s project manager eventually emailed saying he would “no longer be working on this project” because he had not been “getting the necessary easements needed to continue this project.” The line finally moved in 2021.
The appeals court agreed there was evidence of interference - but not enough. Dasht needed to give the jury some basis for estimating the cost. It presented nothing: no project scope, no development plans, no financial impact.
Waste Management’s “as-is, where-is” defense failed too. Georgia precedent holds that “as-is” clauses cover “obvious defects or at least those which are reasonably discernable,” and a power line missing from three surveys was neither.
With every damage award reversed, the attorney fees fell too - Georgia law requires an underlying award to support them.
For commercial property professionals, the case draws a sharp line: proving interference with your property and proving what it cost are two different exercises.
The decision was issued on October 21, 2026.
