On Feb. 6, the Georgia Court of Appeals is set to consider whether the state or the county government has to pay for fire services if the state entered into a contract under an agency that is now defunct.

Attorneys Andy Welch III and Brandon Palmer of Smith Welch Webb & White are bringing their client, appellant Baldwin County’s, case to the appellate court after the Superior Court of Fulton County sided with the state. There, Judge Robert McBurney determined that, while the contract was valid when the parties entered into it, it no longer holds up because the new entity now in charge of the facility doesn’t have the power to fulfill the contract’s demands.