Lawsuit still pending; judge must determine ‘good faith’ standard

The Georgia Supreme Court has declined to hear an legal appeal filed by the Peachtree City Airport Authority on whether it has the power to deny the transfer of an airport access agreement from one company to the other.

In light of that decision, which leaves intact a decision from the Georgia Court of Appeals, Hunting Aviation is bringing forth a request for its airport access agreement to be transferred to Chick-fil-A, which has proposed to buy the long-mothballed Hunting facility. The building is located off the airport property, and so far airport officials have spent $90,000 in legal fees directly related to the case, according to Hunting Attorney David Monde.

Airport attorney Simon Bloom of the Powell Goldstein law firm in Atlanta said the authority wouldn’t have spent the legal fees were it not defending itself from the serious claims filed in Hunting’s pending lawsuit in Fayette County Superior Court.

The final appellate decision on the litigation does not end the lawsuit, however. The Court of Appeals remanded the case back to Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards for evaluation as to whether or not the authority acted in good faith.

Bloom said the authority will consider whether or not to put Hunting’s latest request on its agenda for a decision at its upcoming February meeting. In October, the authority voted to withhold consideration of all airport access agreements until the lawsuit was completed. Although the issue is the same, that lawsuit was filed by Hunting last year when Chippewa Aerospace was considering locating at the Hunting facility, Monde said.

Monde said that the authority now has clear legal direction that it doesn’t have free reign to block the transfer of the access agreement. Under that decision, the authority must have a “commercially viable” reason if it chooses to deny the transfer of the access agreement, Monde said.

Hunting has claimed that the airport wants to either purchase the property for itself at a far lower price than current market value or renegotiate a contract with more favorable terms to the authority. Both claims have been denied by airport officials.

Without the access agreement, it’s unlikely that any aviation-related use could occur at the Hunting facility because planes would not be allowed to go back and forth between the building and airport property. When Hunting was operational as an aircraft maintenance facility, it was a major economic engine at the airport because the airport received fees based on a percentage of the company’s gross receipts.

Monde pointed out that in the pending lawsuit Hunting is seeking damages only because a previous potential tenant, Chippewa Aviation, has since decided not to purchase the Hunting building. The request to reassign the access agreement to Chick-fil-A is a different issue altogether, especially in light of the Court of Appeals decision being upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court, Monde said.

Monde said he found it odd that the airport hasn’t welcomed Chick-fil-A with open arms, but he noted that the airport is arguing that it has a responsibility to get terms for the Hunting facility that are comparable to the leases currently offered to on-airport tenants. Bloom would not comment on why the airport authority considers this agreement an important issue, but he said the authority has a fiduciary responsibility to Peachtree City to run the airport properly.

The authority is composed entirely of five volunteer members, all of whom were appointed to the position by the City Council.

Under the Hunting agreement as written, Chick-fil-A would be able to sell fuel on the site, putting it in direct competition with the airport-owned fuel business. Fuel sales provide a significant impact to the airport budget bottom line, joining on-airport leases as a main source of income. The authority also gets $120,000 a year in hotel-motel tax revenue.

The Hunting contract was written back in 1991 and requires Hunting to pay a fee of five cents for every gallon of fuel delivered to the facility.

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