Sandy Springs filed suit against Fulton County in Superior Court over two malfunctioning detention ponds that inundated homes after fall floods in 2009.

The city is seeking a court ruling that would obligate the county to maintain two detention ponds at the Arlington Memorial Park cemetery.

Representatives of the city maintain that the county has a decades-old legal requirement to maintain the flood-detention structures.

County representatives have countered that, based on state law, Sandy Springs took responsibility for its flood control after it incorporated five years ago.

Wendell Willard, the city’s attorney, said that the city took over the road system when it became a city, but not flood control systems.

“I know nothing in the law that says anything like that,” he said, of the county’s claims.

The court’s decision could set a precedent for which government is responsible for other flood-control structures in the city.

–Jason Massad