Appeals court dismisses city’s appeal in Countryman-Bishop suit

The Georgia Court of Appeals has dismissed the city of Columbus’ appeal of a lower court ruling in the lawsuit filed by Marshal Greg Countryman and Municipal Court Clerk Vivian Creighton-Bishop.

Countryman and Creighton-Bishop co-filed their lawsuit in late 2014, on the heels of similar suits filed separately by Superior Court Clerk Linda Pierce and Sheriff John Darr. All three suits contend that their offices are not sufficiently funded by the city and that the budget process carried out by Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and the city’s 10-member Council was inappropriate if not illegal. Members of Council are named in the lawsuits, as well as several of the city’s top executives.

The city filed motions to have the suits dismissed in Superior Court. Some aspects of the suits were dismissed or dropped, but the suits were allowed to go forward by the court. The city appealed those rulings to the Georgia Supreme Court, which dismissed the appeal in the Darr and Pierce cases and transferred the Countryman-Creighton-Bishop case to the Georgia Court of Appeals, where it was scheduled to be heard Wednesday morning.

But a March 26 Supreme Court ruling changed that.

On that day, the high court issued an opinion holding the “collateral order doctrine,” which provided a right of direct appeal from certain rulings, no longer applies to cases of sovereign, official, qualified, or other immunity, which are involved in the Countryman-Creighton-Bishop case. So the case returns to Superior Court.

Tomlinson said the ruling by the appeals court had nothing to do with the merits of the case. She said the city will ask the court to rule summarily in its favor and to order Countryman and Creighton-Bishop to repay attorney fees they paid with city credit cards.

“We now will immediately move to recover the taxpayers’ $15,000 used by Marshal Countryman and Clerk Bishop to pay their attorneys in violation of city purchase card agreements and in violation of Georgia law,” Tomlinson said. “We also will move to dismiss these claims on the merits and as a matter of law. The Court of Appeals' dismissal is not on the merits and was a procedural order resulting from a recent change in the law.”

Countryman and Creighton-Bishop paid their attorneys $7,500 apiece using their city-issued credit cards, the city claims.

The courts have ruled that because Darr and Pierce are constitutional officers, the city must pay their legal fees. But because Countryman and Creighton-Bishop are not constitutional officers, the city contends it has no obligation to pay their lawyers.

Chris Balch, an Atlanta attorney representing Countryman and Creighton-Bishop, said he was not surprised that the appeal was dismissed because he considered it a waste of people’s time and taxpayers’ money.

“I told you several months ago that we were going to be right in the law and that they didn’t have the right to appeal, and we were right,” Balch said. “At every stage of this litigation, the city has said, ‘We’re right, we’re right, this is stupid,’ and every time a judge rules, they turn out to be wrong.”

Balch said he continues to be confident that they will ultimately prevail in court.

“We’re confident that we will be able to prevail,” Balch said. “We’re confident that we have the right law and the right position.”

Balch said the next step would be the discovery process before the suit is further litigated.

This story was originally published May 9, 2016 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Appeals court dismisses city’s appeal in Countryman-Bishop suit."