MACON, Ga. — When Macon-Bibb County announced its intention to get new management at west Macon’s Green Meadows townhomes in August 2023, they said the efforts were aimed at addressing criminal activity plaguing the townhomes on Log Cabin Drive.
However, a panel of three Georgia Court of Appeals judges ruled that the installation of a receiver – or court-appointed manager – was itself unlawful, and the trial court failed to honor the apartment complex’s owners' due process rights.
"Put in more stark terms, the County took away a business's private property with absolutely no due process," Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Dillard wrote in the decision.
Back in Aug. 4, 2023, a Bibb County Superior Court Judge found the Green Meadows Townhomes were a public nuisance. Georgia’s nuisance law gives governments the power to step in when an entity "causes hurt, inconvenience or damage to another" with a judge's approval.
According to the county, the townhomes had long had issues with pervasive drug dealing, gangs and violence.
To support that, the county points to 144 cases of gunfire at the townhomes between March 2022 and June 2023. In a complaint, the county called Green Meadows the "statistically" most dangerous apartment complex in the county.
“Our community has said loud and clear that public safety is its top priority, and we have made it clear we will not tolerate businesses allowing criminal activity to occur,” Mayor Lester Miller said at the time. “We must make sure we are addressing businesses that allow violent and drug-related activities to occur regularly.”
All told, Macon-Bibb County's Attorney Michael McNeill argued that the nuisance standard was met during oral arguments back in April 2024.
”They ran a business that was so terrible that they endangered 155,000 residents of Macon-Bibb,” McNeill said during oral arguments.
However, the judges unanimously rejected Macon-Bibb County's effort to install a receiver, saying it failed to give the company its fair shake and didn't adequately prove the complex was a nuisance.
Lack of notice
In the Aug. 4 hearing where the court-appointed management was installed, there were only a few people in the room: the judge, the county and a law enforcement officer.
Green Meadows, however, had not been given notice at all before the judge "granting the receiver virtually unfettered control over all aspects of the Property's management," the court found.
The county argued that the decision to install a receiver was based on criminal law – not civil law – and they didn't have to provide Green Meadows an opportunity to be heard as required under the state's Civil Practice Act.
Dillard and the judges say that the argument falls flat too.
Of another Bibb County Superior Court judge's analysis, Dillard wrote, "The court's skepticism was entirely justified. As our Supreme Court has explicitly held, a proceeding to abate a common nuisance is indeed civil."
Because of that, Green Meadows should have been given notice for the hearing beforehand. Keeping them out of the room, they ruled, was a violation of the Georgia and U.S. constitutions, Dillard wrote.
Correlation or Causation?
The judges also found that the Bibb County Superior Court failed to consider an important factor: causation.
The judges argue that just because a crime is occurring on a property, that does not mean the property is a nuisance.
Instead, the judges cited Georgia laws showing that the property owner must 1. know the nuisance behavior is occurring and 2. "consent to the activity or fails to exercise reasonable care to prevent the nuisance."
During the oral arguments, the attorney for Green Meadows, former Georgia Supreme Court Justice Harrold Melton, argued that was anything but the case.
“If you are unable to effectively resolve third-party criminal activity on your property – despite your best effort – the government can come in and commandeer that property,” Melton argued. “That is Macon-Bibb County’s position; that is flat wrong.”
The townhomes invested approximately $12.4 million to refurbish the property along with hiring security guards, new security systems and other safety measures, the decision notes.
"While the court briefly noted the security measures GMHP has undertaken for the benefit of the property and its residents, at no point did it discuss whether those measures satisfied GMHP's duty to exercise reasonable care or, if not, what more was required to fulfill that duty," the court wrote.
Because of that missed step, the judges sent the case back to Bibb Superior Court to reevaluate with the new guidance from the Court of Appeals.
What’s next for Green Meadows:
When the case first came to the Court of Appeals, the judges issued a stay, putting the receivership on hold as the case went through the court system. That meant the original management was reinstalled.
Now, the original management remains in place.
However, one of the options off the table: a receivership.
According to Dillard, a receiver is not an appropriate remedy for a nuisance. In this case, "a public nuisance may be abated in equity by injunction only."
In a statement, Macon-Bibb County said: "We are currently reviewing the decision and discussing all of our options. We will be taking every step needed to improve public safety for this area and for the entire community, just as we've done with several other locations that had become centers of criminal activity."
During the oral arguments, McNeill said they had seen crime at Green Meadows decrease by roughly 90% before the court issued a stay, installing the original management as the case moved through the courts.
When installing the receivership, Mayor Lester Miller said the hope was to get the property back into the hands of the company after the issues are addressed.