Joshua Chang with his parents (Supplied)
MILTON, Ga. - A nearly decade-long legal battle over the death of a 21-year-old Yale University student has ended with the city of Milton agreeing to pay his family $10 million and name a bridge in his honor.
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What we know:
The Milton City Council unanimously approved the settlement Monday with the parents of Joshua Chang, who was killed in a single-car crash while home from college for Thanksgiving break in November 2016.
The agreement comes three years after a Fulton County jury found the city responsible for Chang's death and after a series of appeals that drew attention from cities across Georgia concerned about how broadly municipalities could be held responsible for hazards outside traffic lanes.
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What happened to Joshua Chang?
The backstory:
Chang was a standout student who graduated as salutatorian of Woodstock High School before attending Yale University on a full scholarship. He was a senior at Yale, studying mechanical engineering and economics, when he returned home to visit his parents.
On Nov. 19, 2016, Chang was driving on Batesville Road in Milton when his car left the travel lane and struck a large concrete-and-stone planter near the roadway.
According to his family's attorneys, the planter measured about 7 to 8 feet across and had been in an area maintained by the city for years.
Investigators found Chang had not been speeding or using his cellphone. No drugs or alcohol were found in his system.
His family's attorneys said Chang swerved to avoid something in the road before hitting the planter. The planter was later removed.
Jury finds Milton responsible
Chang's parents eventually sued Milton, arguing the city should have removed the planter because it created a dangerous condition along the road.
After years of litigation, a Fulton County jury sided with the family in 2023.
The family's attorneys say the jury returned a $32.55 million verdict. Earlier FOX 5 reports described the total award as approximately $35 million.
Following the verdict, Chang's mother, Rebecca Zhu, said the decision gave her something she had waited more than six years to hear.
"I knew all those years, that wasn’t Joshua’s fault," Zhu said at the time. "But I had to wait 6.5 years to get justice."
The Georgia Court of Appeals upheld the judgment against Milton in 2024.
Case reaches Georgia Supreme Court
The other side:
Milton continued fighting the verdict, taking the case to the Georgia Supreme Court.
The appeal became significant well beyond Milton. Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Cedartown and other local governments supported Milton's position because of concerns that the ruling could expose cities to large lawsuits involving trees, signs, utility poles and other objects outside normal travel lanes.
Milton argued that sovereign immunity generally protects municipalities from liability for roadway defects outside the lanes intended for vehicles.
In March 2026, the Georgia Supreme Court narrowed the circumstances in which cities can be held liable for negligence involving dangerous conditions outside travel lanes. However, Georgia law still allows municipalities to face liability when a dangerous condition rises to the level of a nuisance.
The Supreme Court sent the portion of the Chang case involving the jury's nuisance finding back to the Court of Appeals for additional consideration.
The two sides reached the settlement before that process was completed.
$10 million settlement ends the case
By the numbers:
Under the agreement approved Monday, the Georgia Interlocal Risk Management Agency will provide $6.67 million of the settlement, while Milton will pay $3.33 million.
The agreement ends the litigation rather than continuing the fight over the original multimillion-dollar verdict.
"No settlement can undo the loss of Joshua Chang, a young man who had an incredibly bright future, but we hope this brings his family some measure of closure," attorneys Jeffrey Harris and Jed Manton said in a statement.
The city has also agreed to name a bridge near the crash site for Chang. Details about the memorial will be announced later.
For Chang's parents, the settlement closes a court fight that began with their effort to establish responsibility for the death of their only child and ultimately became a case with implications for cities throughout Georgia.