Georgia Supremes grant Peachtree-Pine a day in court

The people who run the controversial homeless shelter at Peachtree and Pine streets will get a jury trial over their claims that the nonprofit was wrongfully targeted in a quiet plan to oust them from the massive building.
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? The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless has long said it’s the target of conspirators who want sway their funders away from them and use a debt to foreclose on the Midtown building. That would mean shutting the doors to hundreds of homeless people.
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? Under a unanimous state Supreme Court ruling Monday, the Task Force will get a jury hearing on some of their claims. It can also stay put in the 100,000 square-foot former auto parts warehouse until a jury decides its fate.
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? “More than 500 people slept in that building last night,” Task Force attorney Steven Hall said on the chilly morning a few hours after the ruling was published. “This gives those homeless folks a chance, their day in court, to be fair and to show what these entitles did … to what is ... their, really, last bastion of support.”  He said the task force is pleased with the high court’s decision.
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? The court’s decision speaks to a total nine cases the parties have against each other in a legal battle that’s stretched over many years.
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?The Task Force made accusations against Central Atlanta Progress, the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, and several companies that have handled a $900,000 debt the shelter operators were in default on as of 2010. The Task Force says those entities attempted to turn their lender against them and badmouthed them to funders and the city about a state grant. It also says the task force were wrongfully foreclosed upon. Those will be the questions for the jury. 
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? But the ruling was not all rosy for the Task Force. For example, the Task Force claimed that their opponents turned Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy against them. The Supremes said the Task Force failed to produce any evidence that any gift from Cathy was diverted.
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? Stephen Riddell, attorney for Central Atlanta Progress, said he’s pleased with the ruling because it knocks out some of those Task Force claims. 
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? “We’re fine going to a jury and we think we’ve got a good story to tell,” said Riddell, saying that throughout the long course of litigation, the Task Force has made a lot of claims that have gotten thrown out. 
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?”The real story is they’ve been having financial problems all along,” Riddell said. And that will be the argument the jury hears.
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? The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District has sought in court to be removed from the Task Force’s legal wrath on grounds of “sovereign immunity.”  That is, it is arguing that it is a taxpayer-funded body that cannot be sued in this way. ADID is waiting for a ruling on that request, its attorney Lee Clayton said.
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? The shelter has been controversial, to say the least. Though it has fierce defenders, other service providers in the past have critiqued its approach to addressing the social issue.
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?Mayor Kasim Reed has said that Task Force’s operating model simply does not work and the building is a hub of tuberculosis activity. The Task Force said it communicates with county health officials about TB cases. Reed said he has a plan to use eminent domain to take over the massive building and put a police and fire station on the site. He has said he wants to rehouse the people who stay in Peachtree-Pine in smaller centers with wraparound services.
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? The city is not a party to any of the lawsuits in the Monday ruling.  A Reed spokeswoman said in an e-mail that “the city remains committed to the acquisition of property in Midtown to build a new public safety facility to serve the needs of its citizens.”
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