On March 27, 2015, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Fulton County Superior Court granting judgment as a matter of law to the Fulton County Board of Assessors and the Development Authority of Fulton County (DAFC) in litigation challenging well over $5 billion of development bond transactions. In the litigation, which has been pending since 2009, the plaintiff, SJN Properties, LLC, sought to unravel some 70 projects that had been financed through sale-leaseback transactions.
All Justices concurred in the 19 page opinion, which held, among other things, that the plaintiff’s claims for injunctive relief were barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity and that the plaintiff was not entitled to a declaratory judgment. More important, however, to future development authority transactions throughout the state, the Court held that the manner in which the Board of Assessors valued the projects at issue for ad valorem taxation purposes was not arbitrary and unreasonable or otherwise legally invalid.
“This is an outstanding result for the Board of Assessors, the Development Authority, Fulton County and anyone who is interested in Georgia remaining competitive with other states in the area of economic development,” said Cary Ichter, who presented DAFC’s argument before the Supreme Court. “This case has cast a bit of a pall over certain economic development initiatives in Georgia for a number of years, and I am delighted that economic development authorities in Georgia will now be unencumbered by the shadow of this challenge,” Ichter said.
For more information about SJN Properties, LLC v. Fulton County Board of Assessors, Georgia Supreme Court, No. S14A1493, March 27, 2015, call Cary Ichter or Reid Shannon at Ichter Kresky & Associates, (404) 869-7600.