Latoya Bray sued sheriff’s lieutenant Stormie Watkins in her official and individual capacities, alleging that Watkins failed to activate a tornado-warning system while working at a county emergency center and caused damages. The trial court granted summary judgment in part under the public duty doctrine; a divided Court of Appeals affirmed, treating its no-duty rule as a merits question that made sovereign immunity moot. The Supreme Court of Georgia granted certiorari, vacated the Court of Appeals’ opinion, and remanded to that court. It held sovereign immunity is a jurisdictional threshold that courts must resolve before reaching the merits of official-capacity claims; the public duty doctrine is a merits question. The Court disapproved earlier language suggesting otherwise and clarified that a court cannot avoid the immunity analysis by deciding duty first. It did not decide whether immunity bars Bray’s official-capacity claims or whether she can ultimately prevail; the Court of Appeals must address immunity first on remand. All participating justices concurred.