A judge in Morgan County could set a precedent by forcing Georgia property owners who sued to halt development of a massive state-backed auto factory near their properties to pay for the other side\u2019s legal costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The case involves the proposed Rivian electric automobile plant on a rural stretch near Social Circle off Interstate 20. Lawyers for Georgia and for a related quasi-governmental entity made their half-million-dollar demand in the local superior court Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A half dozen local landowners sued the county in a bid to force compliance with local zoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They have been fighting a losing battle, in no small part due to the state\u2019s unparalleled power as an entity that enjoys \u201csovereign immunity\u201d from local ordinances, including zoning requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state bypassed the agricultural zoning for the 2,000-acre property by purchasing it, then leasing it to the Joint Development Authority for Morgan and nearby counties, which in turn leased it to Rivian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opponents of the plant say the state and authority are trying to silence dissent by going after the landowners\u2019 pocketbooks for $344,000 in legal costs. Plant proponents say the state and the authority are trying to protect taxpayer dollars from frivolous lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Near the end of the three-hour hearing, Morgan Superior Court Judge Stephen Bradley could not say when he would rule, let alone how. But he was sure of one thing: a ruling against the defendants would set a precedent in Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI found no cases in which the state, as sovereign, obtained payment from citizens\u201d for opposing a state action, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia law allows defendants, in this case the state and the authority, to recover legal fees from plaintiffs who file frivolous lawsuits. This suit was clearly frivolous because the state is not subject to local zoning and the plaintiffs knew that all along, said Charles E. Peeler, a lawyer contracted to represent the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe motive is to delay, harass and stop the project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Judge Bradley issued an initial ruling against the landowners several years ago, declining their request for a temporary restraining order on development of the Rivian project because, in his view, they had low odds of winning. The state Court of Appeals did not overrule him on that, and the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But John A. Christy, who is representing the landowners in their lawsuit, said it remains an open question whether sovereign immunity applies when the state leases land to a developer. He told the judge that he had ruled that there was a \u201clow probability of success,\u201d not \u201cno probability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christy said the state was trying to \u201cweaponize\u201d the law that allows defendants to recoup attorney fees in frivolous cases, and he said a ruling against his clients would have \u201ca chilling effect\u201d on others considering a court fight against the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bradley must rule not only on whether the plaintiffs must pay but also on how much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hearing featured attorneys for the state and for the authority taking the witness stand to explain their fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peeler said his firm offered the state a \u201csignificant discount\u201d by charging $625 an hour, which is nearly half his own hourly rate and well below the $1,400 an hour billed by another member of his firm who once served on the Georgia Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The state also got a good deal from recent hires at his firm, he said. A 2024 University of Georgia law school graduate and a 2023 Emory law grad both bill at more than $625 an hour, he said, eliciting a gasp from a woman seated near the front of the courtroom. \u201cLord have mercy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Bradley did not indicate how he would rule, he did push back against an attorney for the authority, who had said the case was obviously frivolous from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I completely agree with you,\u201d Bradley said, observing that the authority joined the lawsuit as a defendant for a reason. \u201cIf the result was so obvious, why did the JDA bother to intervene?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blake McCormack, chairman of the Morgan County Commission, said after the hearing that it would be a \u201ctravesty\u201d if the judge made the plaintiffs pay; it would mean the \u201cstate used their tax dollars to fight against them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was shocked by the attorneys\u2019 hourly fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure there are rocket scientists that deserve $1,400 per hour,\u201d McCormack said. \u201cThat is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An agent for the authority shared a statement by its board that ran in a local newspaper. \u201cCitizens have the right to voice concerns,\u201d the opinion piece said, \u201cbut when the legal system is weaponized to block a perfectly legal project, that is not a legitimate exercise of that right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the Rivian project has been delayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company paused development last year, then in January announced it had secured a $6 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. Rivian said construction will begin in 2026, with its R2 and R3 models rolling out of the plant in 2028.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
A judge in Morgan County could set a precedent by forcing Georgia property owners who sued to halt development of a massive state-backed auto factory near their properties to pay for the other side\u2019s legal costs. The case involves the proposed Rivian electric automobile plant on a rural stretch near Social Circle off Interstate 20. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":948,"featured_media":31253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[10706,18832],"class_list":["post-229296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-rivian","tag-rivian-plant","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}