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Judge tells Paulding county to pay $265,113.68 instantly

gpatt0n

By gpatt0n,
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gpatt0n

gpatt0n

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Judge tells county to pay up $265,113.68 instantly. All Attorney's fees reimbursed in Anti-Slapp case

 

 

After two agonizing hearings in which the attorney defending Paulding County had local attorney Glen Stinson relate his billings literally line-by-line to justify his fees in defending Thad and Melissa Morrison's efforts to challenge the zoning of a planned residential development that surrounds their property of Palisades Parkway, Superior Court Judge Tonnie Beavers ruled Wednesday that all attorney's fees were justified.

 

The award of the attorney's fees came after Judge Beavers had ruled last November (2010) that the county's use of the legal system was contrived and designed to thwart the Morrison's their day in court and therefore was a violation of the Georgia Anti-SLAPP statute. The Anti-Slapp statute prohibits local government from using the system to seek to drain a plaintiff of money forcing them to withdraw from their litigation effectively depriving them plaintiff of their first amendment civil rights to petition government for a redress of grievances.

 

The award, which was mailed from the courts on Wednesday, gives the Paulding couple reimbursement of $265,113.68 which comprises the portion of the expenses local attorney Glen Stinson attributed to his bout with the county in the case that originated in 2006. A copy of the ruling is here: morrisonrulingsm.pdf

 

The ruling stated that the payment should be made 'instanter' which, as a legal term, means now, instantly, within 24 hours. The Morrison's report they have not received a check at this point raising in their minds whether the county intends to appeal the ruling. The county has not yet appealed the initial judgment they were in violation of the ANTI-Slapp statute.

 

The issue of attorney's fees presumably out of the way, the path to hearing the actual issues of the case now are presumably on a fast track with a judge obviously so weary of the delays that he approved every cent asked by Stinson, the Morrison's attorney.

 

Those cases were halted in the deposition stage as the county apparently was using various tactics to block the on-the-record interviews with the former county attorney Lani Skipper and her husband, the former head of Paulding's planning department, Ben Skipper. Also on the list of those sought for depositions that the legal wrangling held up was former commission chairman Jerry Shearin, numerous water department employees and others.

 

The resolution of the anti-slapp portion of the case, with the obvious eye of Judge Beavers saying get on with it, the Morrisons and the county may either proceed to court, where the named dollar amounts in two companion suits total over $2.5 million or the county may choose to settle on more favorable terms. (The county had offered the Morrison's return of some of the property they allege was taken and used for a subdivision road plus reimbursement of a portion of the attorney's fees that Mr. Morrison says was substantially lower than Judge Beaver's award Wednesday.

 

Morrison said he planned to press the commission on the case and asked his friends to attend the commission work session at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 12th.

 

pubby

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surepip

surepip

Posted
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Party at Surepip's!

 

 

 

 

YEs!, We received today the ruling from JudgeBeavers, with a Judgement against the Board of Commissioners and their attorney for $265,113.68.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully, this will motivate ThePowers That Be to at least attempt to settle the suits and bring this 5+ year ordeal, and the MILLION Plus Dollars they have spent trying to deny us our 1st Amendment Rights to a close.

 

 

 

 

What a freaking waste of time, energy, effort and money just to protect a developer. And, to make our lives as miserable as possible bleeding us of everything we have to stop us from exercising our 1st Amendment rights to seek redress against government.

 

 

 

 

We have no idea how long before we "Seethe Money", but there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a train.

 

 

 

 

So BYOB and head over to Palisades if you want to join in the celebration.

 

 

 

 

Also, for any one interested, there isa Board of Commissioners Meeting on Tuesday at 10:00am and 7:00pm if you care to attend and try to make your wishes felt by your commissioners and/or the Chairman to end the madness and settle this.

 

 

 

 

I doubt anyone would be allowed to sign up and address the subject of encouraging them to bring oursuits to a close, as they passed new regulations last year prohibiting anyone to address the BOC concerning ongoing litigation.But I guess you could try.

 

 

 

 

But do come and join us this evening if you want.

 

 

 

 

Surepip and family

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lowrider

lowrider

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What wonderful news! It's finally the beginning of the end...........

 

Nothing can give you your landscaping, trees, peaceful homeplace or your health back, but it is the beginning of recovery.

 

Prayers work and will continue.

 

Congratulations and have a great time tonight with your friends and family!

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mei lan

mei lan

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YES!!!!!!! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!! This is AWESOME!!! OH, I could kiss this judge. Excellent news, surepip...give our love to the Mrs.

 

Geez Louise, now let's get this show on the road and get this dog doo-doo of a mess taken care of!!!

 

I am so happy for you, surepip...truly I am!

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WHITEY

WHITEY

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This has indeed been a long drawn out affair, And I am glad that Judge Beavers ruled on behalf of the Morrison's

 

I believe that it is now incumbent upon the Board of Commissioners, To move the remainder of this civil case forward,And do either one of two things.

 

(1) The remaning portion of this civil case should be heard in a court of law with a jury making the final decision as to the damages done by the defendants ASAP.

(2) The County should settle the case out of court satisfactory to all parties involved ASAP.

This case has been drug out entirely too long, At the expense of the Tax Payers of Paulding County, And the Morrison Family.

 

It is hard for me to comprehend how the County is not ready to hear a case that was filed in 2006, After spending a reported Million dollars on lawyers fees so far??????? WTH is going on??????

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rchaos

rchaos

Posted
Posted (edited)

Finally! Now let's see this go to court quickly!

 

I'm wondering how many people will be laid off and/or services cut at the County to help pay for this since it was not in the recently passed budget.

Edited by JediTreeRat
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surepip

surepip

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Come on by and celebrate with us.

 

On the other side of the coin, please remember we have tried to get the county to negotiate a settlement with us. We have been in contact with David Austin and his old BOC, and new BOC since he took office to try to negotiate a settlement and stop the madness.

 

And they have steadfastly refused.

 

Their offer Christmas of 2009 was if we walked away they would not counter sue us for everything we have.

 

Their offer in April this year was half our legal fees and to give us back our 12-1/2 feet of front yard they allowed the developer to simply "Take", minus the 25 year old maple trees we had planted and other amenities such as dirt which they took away.

 

We have yet to have any sort of reasonable offer at all.

 

We have been told over and over how they would settle when the judge ruled......which he did in November last year. And here we are, hundreds of thousands of dollars later with no reasonable offer.

 

We are open to meeting and settling this, but they have shown over and over they would prefer to pay Kieth Wiener and Holland & Knight to litigate instead.

 

Now the Judge has definitevley ruled what they have to pay.

 

Pay it and let's move forward and get it over with.

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rockster

rockster

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I wonder how many folks were laid off in ANTICIPATION of this judgement?

 

I wonder how many folks would be employeed if the County did not try and fight this??? Just sayin. Congrats to the Morrisons for standing up, and fighting the local political arena

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LPPT

LPPT

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Thanks for the congratulations.

 

We had a nice group who came by to celebrate with us, and I believe ALL had a nice time.

 

Now we wait to see the money.......or if we have to keep fighting.drinks.gif

 

:drinks: :drinks: :drinks: :drinks: :drinks: :drinks:

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zoocrew

zoocrew

Posted
Posted

It's about time.

 

I wonder if the Atlanta media would get involved if every one of us sent an email to the same people at the same news station? If say Randy Travis of the I Team got 100 emails from different people asking him to do a story on this, would he do it?

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mei lan

mei lan

Posted
Posted

It's about time.

 

I wonder if the Atlanta media would get involved if every one of us sent an email to the same people at the same news station? If say Randy Travis of the I Team got 100 emails from different people asking him to do a story on this, would he do it?

 

Hey, interesting idea, zoo. Y'all let us know if you're going to do this so we can all do it together.

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surepip

surepip

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Hey, interesting idea, zoo. Y'all let us know if you're going to do this so we can all do it together.

 

We would LOVE to have some Atlanta Media coverage, and have tried over the years. We were getting a lot of interest from several before and during the Glenn/Susan Richardson Divorce expose on Fox5, but we did not have the Anti-Slapp ongoing at that time other than having "noticed" the opposition. We have not been able to garner any interest since, but, although I am SURE if was a coincidence [right!] that we finally got Judge Osborne to recuse himself after the Richardson Divorce Sealing hit the fan, and then we proceeded with the Anti-Slapp.

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mei lan

mei lan

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Well, my opinion is that this case has taken obscenely long to get before a jury. I don't even know if surepip is correct (as I have stated before publicly), but he does deserve to have a hearing before a jury of his peers. I am THRILLED at this ruling, and I don't care who knows it. Now they need to LET IT GO TO TRIAL.

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rchaos

rchaos

Posted
Posted (edited)

Well, my opinion is that this case has taken obscenely long to get before a jury. I don't even know if surepip is correct (as I have stated before publicly), but he does deserve to have a hearing before a jury of his peers. I am THRILLED at this ruling, and I don't care who knows it. Now they need to LET IT GO TO TRIAL.

 

DITTO!!!

 

I'd like to add that this has gone far too long to be settled out of court. This NEEDS to go to trial so all of us tax payers can see the truth behind all of this.

 

Don't worry about who says what in these threads Peachesga. Threads in these forums tend to be moved, changed and deleted at the drop of a hat.

Edited by JediTreeRat
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