Brownlee v. Dalton Board of Water, Light, & Sinking-Fund Commissioners

1. A department of a city government, ere*539ated by the city’s charter, and which is authorized to discharge duties primarily resting upon a municipality, is an agency or instrumentality of the city government for the performance, for the municipality, of the duties imposed upon it. Such department is not a separate and distinct corporate entity which is subject to suit for its failure to perform, or for the-violation of, any duty resting upon it unless it is so created by clear legislative intent. This is true notwithstanding the department has had expressly conferred upon it, by the…