Georgia judge wont award attorneys fees to governments in lawsuit over Rivian vehicle plant
Atlanta (AP) – A judge rejected an attempt to force people who forced an electric vehicle facility to fail to pay the legal wages of the government by a local Development Agency and a local Development Agency.
State Government and Development Authority Rivian automotive Pay more than $ 337,000 for legal fees made by the government.
Stephen Bradley, the judge of the Morgan District Supreme Court, said in a decision opened on Friday, that the two cases that state institutions are looking for wages are far from being meaningless and that the government can make it difficult for the government to use the right to challenge government actions in the court.
Bradley should not be prohibited to open a lawsuit to test the legality or compliance of the government’s allegations of the government’s claims or the conformity of the constitution, and any precedent that may allow the discharge of political actions and costs into complaining cases, Brad.
Joellen Artz, the leader of the opposition group No2 Rivian, said the decision prevented the citizens from being “silenced by Goliath”.
The state is trying to save another $ 200,000 fee in a separate case in Atlanta. Chief Public Prosecutor Chris Carr’s spokesman immediately did not return an e -mail looking for comments.
The decision arrived days before a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday. Rivian Facility of 5 billion dollarsEventually, an area of 2,000 acres near Social Circle had to employ 7,500 people in the east of the Atlanta city center.
Some local residents Against plantHe says that he is an inappropriate neighbor for farms and that residents will ruin the drinking water well in a rural area on the eastern side of the Atlanta’s suburban border. A joint development authority, including the governments of the previous owner, Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton districts, transferred the land ownership to the state. This extinguished things that could be a controversial resonating struggle because the state land is often exempt from local zoning laws.
However, the cases questioned whether this was appropriate, whether a truck was rented for Rivian for a parliamentary facility, or whether Rivian’s private activity still requires resonance by Morgan County.
Bradley decided against the plaintiffs, but on Friday’s decision, he acknowledged that the transfers seem to be clearly designed to overcome the resistance from local sounds against the Rivian project. ”
Development Authority, in a statement published in the Covengon News, argued that lawsuits should compensate for lawyer’s fees because there are illegal attempts to “delay the progress that costs taxpayers and community.”
However, Bradley said that the plaintiffs did not sue with malicious intention and that the state’s traditional immunity was the chance to win because they created “new and unanswered law questions”.
Bradley wrote, as shown in the reactions of the defendants, there was a very real chance for a court to decide in favor of the plaintiffs, Brad said Bradley wrote.
In addition, the Morgan District Commission, which was filed, did not seek lawyers’ fees.
