Friday, Feb. 4, 2005

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‘Citizen’ Brown denied attorneys fees for suit over letters to paper

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

A judge has ruled Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown cannot reclaim the roughly $10,000 he spent to defend himself from a libel suit filed in March 2000 by former Peachtree City Attorney Jim Webb, back before Brown ran for office.

The suit, filed against Brown and The Citizen, centered to two letters to the editor from Brown that appeared in the paper, implicating that Webb had a conflict of interest serving as city attorney since he served on the board of directors of a local bank along with two different developers who were suing the city.

Webb ultimately dropped the suit against Brown and The Citizen, less than six months after the claim was filed.

In a six-page order filed last week, Senior Superior Court Judge Arthur Blenn Taylor Jr. said one reason Brown couldn’t recover the attorney’s fees was because the content of the letters didn’t meet a requirement the statements be made in good faith.

"The Court finds that under any reasonable standard of good faith, Brown’s letters consist of contradictory statements that negate any assertion of good faith,” Taylor wrote. The judge also determined that the statements in Brown’s letters “were in furtherance of the right of free speech in connection with an issue of public concern.”

The judge also determined that the suit was not frivolous because “genuine issues of fact existed, specifically whether Brown’s statements constituted factual representations or personal opinions.”

Brown said Monday that he wanted to recoup the fees so he could pay back citizens who contributed to his legal defense fund. After the suit was filed, people would show up at the doorstep of his Planterra Ridge home with checks and money, including Cub Scouts who went door-to-door to raise funds for Brown’s legal defense, he said.

“I was deeply moved,” Brown said, recalling that people would give him donations with no strings attached. But Brown felt compelled to try and get their money back, he said.

“If we didn’t do it, we’d end up regretting it,” Brown said of the decision to seek the legal fees from Webb and his law firm, now known as Webb, Lindsey and Wade.

Brown estimated that the contributions totaled around $1,300. He also acknowledged that he knew it was “a long shot” to recover the fees based on Georgia law.

And, Brown added, “Rarely do you get a judge who rules against attorneys.”