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Plaintiffs drop Rock Springs annexation lawsuits

Published January 12th, 2009 | 1 Comments

KINGSPORT — With less than a week to go before trial, a group of Rock Springs residents who filed suit against Kingsport to prevent being annexed agreed to have their lawsuits dismissed.

When Kingsport began annexing property in the Rock Springs community, in accordance with its five-year annexation plan, some residents from the community began filing lawsuits against the city in an attempt to stop the annexations.

The residents were advised on the matter by a Knoxville organization called Citizens for Home Rule and put in touch with a Knoxville attorney, David Buuck, who has filed all of the lawsuits on behalf of the residents.

Six of the lawsuits were consolidated last year and were slated to go to trial today. Discovery had been done, and Buuck had conducted depositions of numerous city officials including Mayor Dennis Phillips and City Manager John Campbell.

However, with less than a week to go and after hearing of their chances of victory, the plaintiffs agreed to have their lawsuits dismissed.

“We are looking at a lot of expense of a three-day trial, plus the expenses of if we lost, would have to pick up the city’s discretionary costs. It was a matter of economics for everybody,” Buuck said. “The bottom line is the legislature has done several things that have jeopardized the home owners. One is to take away the right to a jury trial. That’s one of the big things. And they’ve changed the laws to make it almost impossible to win an annexation lawsuit.

“I told them their chances and let them make the decision.”

Buuck’s reference to not allowing a jury trial dates back to a 2001 law — Public Chapter 1101 or the Smart Growth Law — which required counties across Tennessee to work with its cities on a 20-year growth boundary where cities could annex. The law removed the right to jury trial for annexation lawsuits.

“You could still go to trial on the health, welfare and safety not materially retarded, but the Tennessee Court of Appeals took that argument away when they said if you receive any benefit from the city you could be annexed,” Buuck said.

Knowing this, then why sue?

“These people wanted the outside chance of winning the case,” Buuck said. “With every annexation suit, my people file these things because it’s a matter of principle to them.”

City Attorney Mike Billingsley said he was pleased the matter has been resolved.

“We look forward to having these folks in the city as citizens and hope they’ll be pleased with our services,” Billingsley said.

Former City Attorney Joe May worked with Billingsley on the case.

“Citizens for Home Rule has prided itself in never losing a lawsuit. However, we have spent enough time and effort that pretty much demonstrated they couldn’t win this one. They knew what our case was going to be and realized what the inevitable result would be,” said May. “By the time they analyzed all of the documents they had obtained from us, deposed all of the city staff people including the mayor, they made their decision.”

The lawsuits will not officially be withdrawn until the judge signs the order. The areas will come into the city limits 30 days after the judge’s order, probably around the middle of February.

Four more lawsuits from Rock Springs residents regarding annexation are still pending. There was an agreement between Buuck and the city not to pursue those cases until the consolidated case was resolved.

“I would anticipate those would be dismissed too, probably dealt with in a similar fashion,” May said.

Buuck said he has no idea at this point what will happen with the remaining four lawsuits.

“You never know until you do the discovery and take the depositions what benefits there might be in a particular area,” Buuck said.

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We have tried the state law makers to return "justice" "fairness"... but I was told that power to the "Cities" was more important than our rights as "county" residents. Mtas and Ctas.

It will take a lawmaker or politician with integrity and grace to help the injustice caused by 1101 to the county people.

I've tried and failed, but hopefully someone else will bring on the fight.

Good luck to them.

Kim Pruden | 1/15/2009 - 1:54 PM - ( Comment

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