After being found liable for the death of a Yale University senior in a 2016 car crash, the Atlanta-area city of Milton is paying his parents $10 million to end the legal saga in which it has been on the hook for more than $32 million.
Joshua Chang was home for Thanksgiving break when his car hit a large concrete and stone roadside planter as he drove through Milton on his way to his parents’ house in nearby Canton the evening of Nov. 19, 2016, case records show.
Investigators said it appeared the 21-year-old had swerved to avoid hitting something in his lane, possibly a deer. Evidence at trial showed he was not inebriated, driving over the speed limit or using his cellphone at the time of the single-vehicle crash.
Credit: Court document
Credit: Court document
Fulton County jurors decided in 2023 that Milton was liable for maintaining the decorative planter on the shoulder of Batesville Road, concluding the structure was a dangerous public nuisance. The jurors awarded $35 million in damages to Chang’s parents, Rebecca Zhu and John Chang, but also found the student was 7% at fault.
On the hook for more than $32 million as its share of the damages, Milton took the case to Georgia’s appellate courts.
The $10 million settlement, approved last week by city leaders, comes after a Georgia Supreme Court decision in March kept the legal fight alive.
Milton denies liability but said the settlement is “a responsible resolution that provides certainty and a path to conclude nearly a decade of litigation.” Records show its potential exposure in the case had reached about $44 million with postjudgment interest accruing.
“Joshua Chang’s death was a tragedy, and nothing about this settlement changes the seriousness of that loss,” the city said in a statement. “Milton has resolved the case responsibly, established financial certainty, and protected current services and priorities.”
The city said it agreed to pay $3.33 million of the settlement from its long-term capital program fund, avoiding any associated reduction in services or staffing, project delays or tax increases. It said the remaining $6.67 million is covered by its insurers.
Zhu told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that nothing will bring her only child back or ease the “unspeakable” pain of his death, but she hopes the case leads to better public safety and more municipal accountability across Georgia. She said she doesn’t want another family to experience the same ordeal.
“In the end, it’s not about win or lose,” she said. “It’s all about responsibility, accountability and making change. We did make some change, for sure.”
The case has municipalities across Georgia examining their own practices and potential exposure, Jed Manton, an attorney for the Chang family, told the AJC. He said the planter that Joshua Chang hit was installed before Milton was incorporated in 2006 and that the city failed to recognize it was a hazard because it lacked a robust inspection protocol.
“Once this wreck occurred, everyone, even within the city and the roads department, realized this thing shouldn’t have been there,” he said. “This family, by going through this protracted litigation, has changed how cities behave in Georgia. I have no doubt about that.”
Milton said that since 2016 it has established a process for identifying and removing potential hazards in the public right-of-way and formalized related permitting responsibilities. It said the Georgia General Assembly should further clarify the duties of cities and limit damages in cases like the Chang family’s.
The planter along Batesville Road, around seven feet in diameter, was damaged in the crash and removed from the site, Manton said.
When upholding the verdict in 2024, the Georgia Court of Appeals said the city was responsible for inspecting its roadways, identifying defects and removing hazards, like the planter, from city property and the public right-of-way.
“Specifically, several witnesses testified that the City should have noticed and removed the planter when it completed repair work to Batesville Road in 2012,” the court wrote in its opinion. “Experts opined that the planter was a problem, and ‘the appropriate response’ and ‘obvious choice’ was to remove it.”
Credit: Courtesy Chang Family
Credit: Courtesy Chang Family
Zhu said her son, a passionate mountain biker who wanted to be an engineer from the age of 6 or 7, was months away from graduating from Yale with a double major in engineering and economics. She said he was talented, smart, kind and generous, and once combined his interests by making his own bike using bamboo.
“I cherish the memory of my 21 years I had with Josh, every single day,” she said. “But the hard part is I have to live with the memory of Josh one day at a time for the rest of my life. Yes, they are all very good memories, but at the same time, it’s painful.”
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